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5s. 


THE  LIGHT  OF  MEN 


THE  LIGHT  OF  MEN 

AN  INTERPRETATION 


BY 

JOHN  BASS 


CEDAR  RAPIDS,  IOWA 
THE  TORCH  PRESS 
NINETEEN  SIXTEEN 


COPYRIGHT,  1916 
BY  THE  AUTHOR 


THE    TORCH    PRESS 

CEDAR     RAPIDS 
IOWA 


"Sempiterna  Lux!    Nee  divitias,  nee 
honores  peto;  me  modo  Divinice 
Lucis  radio  illumines." 


2021083 


FOREWORD 

This  book  is  not  offered  as  a  scientific 
treatise,  in  the  sense  in  which  science  is  ac- 
cepted here  in  the  Occident,  but  as  a  personal 
interpretation — exactly  as  Schure's  Jesus 
and  Renan's  Vie  de  Jesus  are  personal  in- 
terpretations. It  has  been  written  after 
years  of  deep  and  reverent  study,  not  only  of 
our  own  Scriptures,  but  in  comparative  re- 
ligion, and  above  all  of  the  great  Ancient 
Philosophy  of  the  Orient  —  that  science  of 
the  soul  which  reaches  back  to  the  very  hori- 
zons of  Aryan  civilisation. 

It  is  the  conviction  of  the  writer  that  our 
own  Christian  Revelation,  interpreted  in  the 
light  of  the  illuminating  mysticism  of  the 
east  —  one  may  indeed  call  it  the  universal 
mysticism  —  takes  on  a  more  satisfying  sig- 
nificance, a  more  glorious  power.  Phenom- 
ena now  mistakenly  called  supernatural, 
cryptic  truths  in  these  days  brushed  aside 


8  FOKEWORD 

and  discredited  as  superstition,  will,  seen 
with  the  clearer,  more  sublimated  vision,  fall 
into  their  natural  and  inevitable  sequence 
and  take  on  a  revealing  light. 

There  are  a  great  number  of  persons  in 
our  day  who  have  discarded  allegiance  to  any 
formal  theological  teaching,  but  to  whom 
modern  science  offers  only  a  stone  to  the 
passioning  soul  which  asks  for  bread. 
Neither  does  the  so-called  "  religion  of  hu- 
manity" satisfy  that  inward  craving  which 
outward  activity  fails  to  fill. 

It  is  to  these  that  this  book  is  dedicated,  in 
the  hope  that  it  may  bear  to  some  of  them  a 
message  —  the  same  message  that  the  studies 
which  have  led  up  to  it  have  borne  to  the 
writer. 


CONTENTS 

I    THE  DAWN       ....  13 

II    JESUS  OF  NAZARETH  ...  73 

III    NOTES  213 


I 

THE  DAWN 


THE  DAWN 

The  world  is  very,  very  old. 

Innumerable  races  of  men  have  appeared, 
dominated  for  a  time,  and  passed  from  it 
like  clouds  across  the  heavens,  leaving  as 
little  permanent  trace  behind  them.  Mighty 
civilisations  have  arisen  and  again  decayed, 
and  today  we  may  only  guess  at  the  scope 
and  manner  of  their  greatness  by  such  few 
and  imperfect  remains  as  have  come  down 
to  us.  The  face  of  the  earth  is  one  vast  his- 
torical, ethnic  and  moral  palimpsest,  in- 
scribed and  re-inscribed  with  the  characters 
of  human  effort,  one  record  swallowed,  over- 
laid, obliterated  by  another,  as  the  stupen- 
dous, unstaying  wheel  of  circumstance  re- 
volves upon  its  course. 

Whenever  there  has  arrived,  in  the  course 
of  the  world's  evolution,  a  crux  of  human 
principles,  the  great  leader  which  the  stress 
of  the  time  demanded  has  never  been  want- 


.14  THE  LIGHT  OF  MEN 

ing.  He  has  arisen  almost  it  seems  as  by  the 
touch  of  an  enchanter's  wand ;  but  in  reality, 
if  we  examine  the  evidences,  we  shall  see  that 
he  is  the  express  outcome  of  the  universal 
need  —  the  flower  of  a  universal  outreaching 
for  more  light. 

It  becomes  the  sheerest  presumption  to 
assume  that  Supreme  revelation  has  been 
vouchsafed  exclusively  to  any  single  epoch 
or  people;  and  that  this  age-worn  world, 
teeming  for  millenniums  with  life  and  the 
presumable  ardent  upreaching  of  such  life, 
should  have  been  left  without  revelation  un- 
til so  recent  a  period  as  the  opening  of  our 
own  Christian  Era,  is  untenable.  God  re- 
veals as  much  of  His  Mystery  and  Majesty 
as  the  development  of  the  special  age  or 
race  at  that  time  demands  or  permits;  and 
there  have  been  races  before  us  who,  though 
they  may  have  been  lacking  in  that  enormous 
mastery  of  material  agencies  which  marks 
our  present  day,  had  reached  a  spiritual 
ideal  from  which  we  may  well  humble  our- 
selves to  learn.  Indeed  some  of  the  very 
earliest  traditions  we  have  hint  of  a  spiritual 


THE  DAWN  15 

attainment  so  high  that  one  pauses  in  awe 
and  wonder  before  them. 

Always  The  Light  has  been  in  the  world. 
Never  for  a  moment  has  it  been,  or  could  it 
be,  absent.  Eons  ago  God  spake  and  said, 
"Let  there  be  Light  I"  —  and  there  was 
light;  that  Light  which  is  the  very  essence 
of  the  Ineffable,  that  Light  which  is  the 
source  and  fulness  of  all  being;  and  never 
since  for  a  single  instant  has  it  failed  to 
shine.  True  there  fall  seasons  when,  to  the 
perversity  of  men,  darkness  seems  to  be  upon 
the  face  of  the  deep ;  but  the  heart  of  faith 
knoweth  that  f  orevermore  the  Spirit  of  God 
does  move  upon  the  face  of  the  waters.  For 
even  as  the  material  sun,  which  furnishes 
the  life  and  light  of  the  terrestrial  globe,  be- 
comes at  times  obscured  to  men's  vision  by 
clouds  or  drifting  fogs  —  vapours  bred  of 
the  earth's  own  atmosphere,  not  of  the  sun's 
—  so,  between  the  soul  of  man  and  that  in- 
effable and  unending  Life,  which,  whether 
we  cognise  it  or  not,  forever  feeds  us,  there 
rise  miasmas  of  perversion  and  materialism, 
fogs  of  a  self-centred  egoism  and  skepticism, 


16  THE  LIGHT  OF  MEN 

potent  storm-clouds  of  delusion  and  despair. 
At  these  periods  it  will  seem  to  the  eclipsed 
spirit  as  if  life  presented  no  adequacy,  no 
ultimate  meaning,  no  goal.  Creation  looms 
a  hopeless  maze  without  a  clue.  Human  ex- 
istence takes  on  the  aspect  of  an  arbitrary 
and  relentless  juggle  of  mere  circumstance. 
And  so  it  comes  about  that  at  certain  vital 
crises  there  proceeds  mysteriously  from  the 
bosom  of  the  Ineffable  a  Holy  Breath,  a 
Living  Wind  as  it  were,  to  sweep  away  this 
clogging  veil  which  keeps  the  vision  of  man 
holden  so  that  it  does  not  behold  its  Sun, 
and  to  fling  open  once  more  avenues  where- 
by the  races  of  men  may  come  again  into 
consciousness  of  their  divine  source  and  des- 
tiny. We  have  called  these  spiritual  influxes 
Great  Breaths,  but  they  are  specifically 
traceable  to  Living  Presences  —  glorious 
Spirits  of  the  Light  who,  at  special  epochs 
of  the  world's  need,  clothe  themselves  with 
garments  of  the  flesh,  take  on  the  fetters  of 
earth-life,  and  descend  to  mingle  among 
men,  that  they  may  rekindle  in  the  human 
heart  those  moribund  embers  of  spiritual 


THE  DAWN  17 

consciousness,  and  cause  them  once  more  to 
leap  upward  in  a  vital  and  purifying  flame. 
And  to  these  Living  Presences  we  give  the 
Sanskrit  name  of  Avataras  (English,  Ava- 
tar) ;  literally  Incarnation  of  Deity.  Another 
beautiful  eastern  term  for  them  is  Lords  of 
Flame. 

One  may  not  define  precisely  the  nature  of 
an  Avatar.  Glorious  perfected  souls  per- 
haps —  perfected  eons  before  in  other  uni- 
verses, and  made  one  with  the  Father,  or  per- 
haps direct  emanations  from  the  Supreme 
Source,  set  apart  for  special  ends;  who  can 
say  ?  We  may  not  analyse.  It  is  enough  to 
know  that  they  are  uncontaminate  Spirit, 
one  with  the  Unspeakable ;  temporarily,  and 
in  appearance,  separate,  in  reality  never  for 
one  instant  separate ;  that  they  are  the  living 
expression  of  the  All  in  all,  and  that  they 
bring  to  earth  the  Spiritual  fire.  And  the 
message  which  every  Avatar  brings  to  man 
is  always  the  same.  It  may  express  itself  in 
differing  terms,  or  clothe  itself  in  varying 
symbols,  but  substantially  it  is  the  same. 
Creeds  differentiate;  cults  arrive  and  fall; 


18  THE  LIGHT  OF  MEN 

but  religion  in  essence  is  one,  and  has  been 
from  all  time;  for  finally  all  creeds  resolve 
themselves  into  one  Reality. 

There  have  been  many  Avatars.  Certain 
radiant  names  shine  out  like  blazing  stars 
through  the  night  of  a  vast  past,  as  from 
time  to  time,  through  the  long  evolution  of 
the  world,  they  have  appeared  among  men. 
Osiris,  Krishna,  Orpheus,  Gautama;  these 
are  a  few  of  the  names.  Why  enumerate 
them?  They  are  familiar  to  every  student 
of  comparative  religion.  And,  beside  these 
great  fixed  stars,  there  shine  lesser  lumina- 
ries—  lesser  messengers  of  the  Divine  Wis- 
dom. Illumined  men  are  these;  great 
prophets,  great  seers,  great  high-priests, 
great  kings;  not  infrequently  the  last  two 
offices  united  in  one  person.  The  pages  of 
history  and  tradition  are  bright  with  them. 
It  is  largely  by  means  of  such  illumined  men 
that  primitive  society  has  been  moulded,  in- 
structed, developed,  and  pushed  forward  into 
finer  possibilities. 

Infant  races  are  in  the  main  very  like 
children ;  lusty,  free,  strong  with  an  expand- 


THE  DAWN  19 

ing  vitality,  but  without  the  intellectual  and 
rational  powers  which  are  the  stamp  of  ad- 
vanced civilisations;  wayward  too  with  a 
waywardness  born  of  their  very  exuberance ; 
not  easy  to  coerce,  but  easy,  through  the 
quick  play  of  emotion,  to  be  led  by  the  mag- 
netism of  some  dominating  personality. 
Like  children  also  they  are  extremely  recep- 
tive, extremely  psychically  sensitive,  with  a 
sensitiveness  which  disappears  at  intellectual 
maturity.  The  Mystery  is  very  close  to 
them;  so  close  that  they  are  apt  to  confuse 
the  facts  of  the  seen  and  unseen  worlds. 
They  do  not  reason  about  that  which  they 
perceive,  though  it  is  vital  to  them.  Many 
things  which  we  are  too  prone  to  class  as 
superstition  are  merely  the  workings  of  the 
spirit  within  crude  material;  hence  Nature 
worship  —  man 's  first  concept  of  God  —  and 
the  worship  of  the  sun  and  planetary  bodies 
Is  not  God  immanent  in  all  his  universe? 

The  appearance  of  an  Avatar  is  coincident 
with  the  emergence  upon  the  theatre  of  the 
world  of  a  new  race,  of  fresh  social  forces. 
Given  an  infant  race,  comes  always  an  Ava- 


20  THE  LIGHT  OF  MEN 

tar  to  awaken  and  direct  its  aspirations. 
Jesus  of  Nazareth,  the  Avatar  of  the  new  dis- 
pensation —  that  dispensation  which  we  call 
Christianity  —  entered  the  world  at  a  mo- 
mentous hour.  Ancient  civilisations  —  with 
the  exception  of  the  small  but  important 
Greek  peninsular,  all  Asiatic  or  northern 
African  —  were  decadent,  crumbling  in  the 
dust  of  their  own  exhaustion.  New  civilisa- 
tions were  about  to  arise,  new  continents  to 
be  exploited.  The  centres  of  power  were  to 
be  shifted  westward,  and  ever  further  west- 
ward. Europe  itself  —  in  large  part  still  a 
terra  incognita  of  barbaric  and  semi-bar- 
baric tribes  —  was  presently  to  emerge  into 
prominence,  to  become  the  theatre  of  the  new 
activities.  The  last  waves  of  the  great  Celtic 
race  —  the  fourth  sub-race  of  the  still  greater 
Aryan  division  of  mankind  —  were  about  to 
gather  to  flood  in  the  mighty  Roman  Empire, 
bearing  upon  their  flux  unimagined  flotsams 
to  waiting  shores  of  which  they  could  not 
then  even  dream.  Coevally  the  great  fifth 
sub-race  —  the  Teutonic,  with  its  many  rami- 
fications —  was  nationally  at  birth,  and  was 


THE  DAWN  21 

presently  to  sweep  like  a  cyclone  down  upon 
the  Koman  civilisation,  seemingly  to  anni- 
hilate it,  in  realty  to  assimilate  it,  to  vitalise 
it  with  the  new  impulses  of  a  young  people, 
to  transform  it  to  new  issues  which  they  were 
to  push  to  the  farthest  limits  of  the  earth. 

It  was  Alexander  of  Macedon  who  pre- 
pared the  way  for  Europe  and  the  modern 
world ;  and  it  was  Julius  Caesar  who  poten- 
tially established  it.  Both  these  great  gen- 
erals, primarily  actuated  by  personal  ambi- 
tion, unconsciously  let  loose  forces  which  had 
far-reaching  results.  Alexander  in  a  sense 
unified  the  old  world,  the  world  upon  the 
shores  of  the  Mediterranean,  by  implanting 
everywhere  Greek  ideals,  Greek  modes  of 
thought,  Greek  culture.  It  was  a  simple 
matter  for  Eome,  traveling  upon  his  trail, 
to  take  over  materially  and  intellectually  the 
fruits  of  these  varied  civilisations,  and  to 
carry  the  animus  of  them  to  farther  limits. 
The  conquests  of  Caesar  over  the  half -wild 
European  tribes  conduced  to  the  rendering 
of  all  Europe  more  homogeneous,  since  the 
synthetic  method  of  the  Koman  dominion 


22  THE  LIGHT  OF  MEN 

tended  to  stamp  upon  the  lands  which  they 
conquered  the  Roman  instinct  for  system, 
for  law  and  order,  and  for  lucid,  if  sometimes 
crude,  processes  in  the  pursuit  of  knowledge. 
It  was  this  wide  dominion  of  Rome  which, 
when  the  time  came,  rendered  possible  the 
rapid  and  extensive  spread  of  Christianity. 
As,  if  one  should  put  a  torch  to  a  vast  train  of 
accumulated  inflammable  material,  unknow- 
ingly laid  ready  to  the  hand,  conflagration 
must  be  the  outcome. 

Christian  apologists  would  have  us  believe 
that  the  period  preceding  our  Era  was  an 
age  of  prohibitive  darkness  and  obscurity  out 
of  which  flashed  the  revelation  as  a  meteor 
springs  across  a  night-black  sky;  but  this 
was  far  from  being  the  case.  Obscurity  there 
certainly  was  in  the  world,  plenty  of  it ;  but 
there  were,  scintillating  through  its  veil,  a 
myriad  stars  of  mystic  promise ;  a  scattered 
and  more  or  less  eclipsed  luminance,  if  you 
will,  which  the  coming  and  plenitude  of  the 
Master  drew  to  a  focus. 

All  world-culture  is  an  evolution.  It  grows 
out  of,  and  because  of,  previous  conditions ; 


THE  DAWN  23 

and  we  of  today  might  be  surprised  if  we 
could  know  to  what  extent  we  are  indebted 
to  remotest  times.  One  cannot  claim  for  any 
civilisation  that  it  has  entirely  evolved  itself 
from  within,  because  all  civilisations  are  in 
degree  subject  to  cultural  influences  from 
without.  Initiative  for  advance  of  course 
comes  from  within,  but  it  is  never  safe  to 
predicate  the  extent  to  which  such  initiative 
is  stimulated  by  anterior  conditions. 

The  subject  of  religious  origins  is  always 
one  of  much  complexity;  and  therefore  we 
are  constrained  to  look  upon  the  Christian 
revelation  rather  as  a  culmination,  a  high- 
water  mark  as  it  were,  of  a  seething  and 
wide-spread  flux  of  spiritual  tides.  Three 
main  streams,  themselves  composite,  con- 
tributed to  water  the  soil  in  which  were 
planted  the  seeds  of  the  new  faith  —  or, 
more  correctly,  the  new  spiritual  impulse, 
for  faith  is  as  old  as  life  —  Greece,  Egypt, 
Jewry;  and  of  these  the  Greek  animus  of 
course  supplied  the  larger  element. 

One  is  not  accustomed  to  consider  the 
peoples  of  ancient  Hellas  as  a  conspicuously 


24  THE  LIGHT  OF  MEN 

spiritual  race.  Religious  they  were,  but  not 
after  the  profound  introspective  manner  of 
some  older  civilisations  —  the  Hindu  for  ex- 
ample. A  young,  free,  virile  race,  full  of 
the  lyric  joy  of  living,  the  very  blood  in  their 
veins  pulsing  in  swinging  rhythms,  and 
gifted  with  an  exotic  imagination,  it  is  natur- 
al that  the  national  expression  should  be  in 
terms  of  poetry  rather  than  in  those  of  meta- 
physics. That  clairvoyant  sensitiveness  of 
adolescent  races  already  referred  to  would 
make  them  more  or  less  aware  of  intangible 
forces,  of  uncomprehended  effluences,  around 
them,  and  the  idealising  tendency  of  their  in- 
tellections would  translate  these  mysterious 
phenomena  into  symbols  of  power  and  beauty. 
Hence  we  get  a  presentment  of  Nature-wor- 
ship the  most  aesthetic  which  the  world  has 
ever  known.  Every  corner  of  the  land,  every 
heroic,  moral,  or  intellectual  attribute  was  in- 
vested with  its  tutelary  deity.  An  evocation 
of  ideal  Presences  dreamed  in  every  stream, 
through  every  forest,  upon  every  desolate 
mountain  even ;  and  these  Presences  became 


THE  DAWN  25 

the  objects  of  fear  or  adoration,  as  the  case 
might  be. 

To  her  pan-theogony  Greece  poured  liba- 
tions and  built  temples;  in  the  day  of  her 
artistic  and  national  maturity  reared  such 
sublime  monuments,  both  plastic  and  archi- 
tectural, as  have  been  the  delight  and  the  des- 
pair of  the  world  ever  since.  And  yet  these 
do  not  seem  to  bring  us  that  breath  of  spirit- 
ual fragrance,  of  an  indwelling  mystery, 
which  the  less  perfect  remains  of  some  other 
lands  do.  There  are,  in  fact,  two  kinds  of 
mysticism  which  are  often  confused  with 
each  other,  but  which  are  by  no  means  the 
same.  There  is  the  mysticism  of  the  fire- 
touched  soul  —  of  inter-communion  —  of  the 
heights  above  the  heights  and  the  deeps  be- 
neath the  deeps;  and  there  is  a  pseudo- 
mysticism  of  the  subtle,  or  psychic  senses, 
touched  with  an  awareness  of  other  planes  of 
consciousness  than  the  physical,  but  not  pene- 
trating beyond  the  realm  of  the  astral  for  its 
experience,  and  satisfying  itself  with  relig- 
ious expressions  of  sensation  and  emotion. 


26  THE  LIGHT  OF  MEN 

To  this  latter  class  the  religion  of  the  Hel- 
lenic peoples  (taken  by  and  large)  would 
seem  to  have  belonged.  It  was,  in  effect,  a 
religion  of  Beauty,  objectively  pagan,  but 
with  the  thought  floating  as  it  were  betwixt 
external  and  internal  worship.  Ancient  Hel- 
las was  however  not  without  her  revelation. 
In  the  shadowy  adumbrations  of  the  Orpheus 
tradition  we  trace  the  outlines  of  a  true  Ava- 
tar; and  the  Orphic  fragments  which  have 
come  down  to  us  are  hymn-bursts  of  a  high 
order,  well  comparable  to  the  glorious  Vedic 
hymns.  The  specific  teachings  of  Orpheus 
are  however  lost  in  the  fogs  of  time  and 
myth. 

As  we  approach  the  golden  age  of  Greece, 
names  of  great  schools  of  philosophy,  of 
great  individual  philosophers,  confront  us. 
How  far  these  were  schools  of  speculative 
science,  and  how  far  they  shrouded  a  real 
mystic  core,  is  a  question.  No  doubt  they  did 
sublimate  the  forces  of  Nature ;  but  it  is  in 
studying  the  career  of  Pythagoras  alone  that 
we  recognise  the  true  mystic  spirit.  We 
know  of  Pythagoras  that  he  drank  of  the 


THE  DAWN  27 

esoteric  fountains  of  India  and  of  Egypt, 
that  he  was  an  Adept  of  a  high  order,  and 
that  he  greatly  inflamed  and  stimulated  the 
aspirations  of  men  in  his  day.  Without 
doubt  Mystery  cults  had  long  existed  in  some 
form,  but  he  endued  them  with  a  new  life. 
The  Pythagorean  following  was  extensive, 
but,  as  the  generations  went  on,  it  inevitably 
dwindled.  Indeed  so  drastic  was  the  proba- 
tionary training  for  initiation  into  these  or- 
ders that  it  is  likely  there  would  not  be  any 
great  number  of  young  men  of  a  fibre  and 
ardour  to  undergo  it.  Mystery  initiations 
officially  remained,  but  by  the  time  Greece 
emerges  into  the  glare  of  authentic  history 
they  were  greatly  shorn  of  their  pristine  sig- 
nificance, and  had  degenerated  into  more  or 
less  of  a  class  privilege,  void  of  the  exalted 
meaning  and  power  of  the  true  Mystery. 
When  in  Plato's  time  we  find  all  citizens  of 
a  certain  social  standing  admitted,  as  a  mat- 
ter of  course  and  by  way  of  an  educational 
finish,  to  initiation  into  the  Eleusinia  —  the 
most  solemn  and  occult  of  the  Greek  Mystery 
cults — we  must  deduce  that  these  initiations 


28  THE  LIGHT  OF  MEN 

could  neither  have  been  superlatively  pro- 
found, nor  the  probationary  training  for 
them  particularly  exacting. 

After  the  death  of  Aristotle,  if  not  before, 
we  find  philosophy  entirely  detached  from 
religion.  The  keen,  subtle  Greek  intellect  oc- 
cupied itself  with  dialectics,  with  scientific 
speculation,  with  metaphysical  negations. 
Restless  and  eclectic,  it  evolved  upon  the  one 
hand  the  philosophy  of  the  Stoa,  which 
sought  by  a  process  of  intellectual  hardening, 
an  inhibition  of  human  emotion,  to  render  it- 
self invulnerable  to  the  storm  and  stress  of 
earthly  life ;  and  upon  the  other,  the  philos- 
ophy of  Epicurus,  which,  by  a  sublimation 
of  the  aesthetic  sense,  sought  in  another  way 
to  provide  an  anaesthesia  against  all  mortal 
pangs.  But  neither  school  offered  any  food 
for  the  passioning  soul.  The  world  became 
indifferent  —  skeptic  —  materialised.  The 
popular  faiths  lost  their  hold  upon  men. 
The  gods  were  indeed  still  worshipped,  but 
they  had  lost  their  potency. 

Yet  mystery  perished  not  utterly.  In  hid- 
den corners  and  overlooked  sanctuaries  the 


THE  DAWN  29 

cryptic  truths  were  cherished  and  guarded 
by  the  chosen  few.  In  the  period  preceding 
the  Christian  Era  there  was  a  recrudescence 
of  the  Pythagorean  fires ;  —  a  wave  of  Neo- 
Pythagoreanism,  which  reached  its  zenith  in 
the  person  of  the  great  Adept,  Apollonius  of 
Tyana,  and  which,  transmuted  into  that  won- 
derful movement  which  we  know  as  Neo-Pla- 
tonism,  swept  far  on  into  the  first  three 
Christian  centuries.  And  Neo-Platonism, 
quite  as  much  as  early  Christianity,  em- 
bodied the  flower  of  the  best  Greek  spirit. 

In  Egypt,  in  the  period  forerunning  the 
Christian  Era,  we  find  very  much  the  same 
social  conditions  obtaining  —  but  with  a  cer- 
tain difference.  Egypt,  the  Sibyl  of  eld,  the 
Sphinx-land,  the  Mother  of  Wisdom  and  of 
Mystery,  had  fallen  from  her  high  estate.  A 
stupendous  Empire  of  unparallelled  long- 
evity, with  monuments  of  far  greater  magni- 
tude and  import  than  any  others  of  which  we 
today  have  any  record,  she  preserved  through 
many  vicissitudes  and  cyclic  shocks  a  spirit- 
ual profundity  and  majesty  unapproachable. 
But  the  longest-lived,  either  of  men  or  of  na- 


30  THE  LIGHT  OF  MEN 

tions,  cannot  live  forever.  The  attrition  of 
much  contact  with,  and  subjection  to,  cruder 
peoples,  together  with  a  radical  decay  at  the 
core,  precipitated  the  inevitable  desuetude. 
From  time  immemorial  Egypt  had  taught 
wisdom  to  her  neighbours,  and  for  countless 
centuries  numberless  generations  of  men  had 
resorted  to  her  to  drink  from  her  carefully- 
guarded  arcane  springs.  But  in  the  vast  so- 
cial disintegrations  which  took  place  in  the 
land,  these  springs  became  clogged,  and  no 
longer  yielded  the  ancient  flow.  Long  dynas- 
ties of  impotent  monarchs  emasculated  the 
inherent  spirit  of  things,  while  the  domin- 
ance of  the  arrogant  and  corrupt  Thebaid 
priesthood  hardened  the  national  faith  into 
an  iron  dogmatism,  smothered  in  pompous 
ritual,  but  empty  of  the  ancient  inner  light. 
Upon  this  decadence  swept  the  whirlwind  of 
the  Persian  conquest,  and  held  the  land  in  a 
tyrannous  thrall,  paralysing  to  any  spiritual 
flowering.  From  this  bondage  the  further 
conquest  of  Alexander  delivered  Egypt,  and 
under  the  beneficent  rule  of  the  Ptolemies  she 
took  a  new  lease  of  life;  but  the  race  was  too 


THE  DAWN  31 

old  and  too  spent  for  any  autochthonous  re- 
vival, and  Ptolemaic  Egypt  is  a  Hellenised 
Egypt,  stamped  with  the  peculiar  animus  of 
the  Greek  peoples.  The  brilliant  intellect  of 
the  Greek,  blending  with  that  brooding  spirit 
of  mysticism  inherent  in  the  land  and  ex- 
haling from  the  very  soil,  produced  a  culture 
of  a  new  order,  partaking  of  the  quality  of 
both  elements.  And  in  Egypt  the  Greek 
genius  took  a  final  and  glorious  flight.  Alex- 
andria, Alexander's  foundation,  became  the 
centre  of  the  world's  learning.  To  her 
schools  resorted  the  students  and  mystics  of 
all  lands;  and  it  was  Alexandria  which  be- 
came, when  the  time  was  ripe,  the  hot-bed 
of  the  new  religion  of  Christianity. 

The  religious  systems  of  ancient  Egypt 
have  their  roots  far  back  in  the  abyss  of  time. 
This  is  not  the  place  to  treat  of  them;  the 
subject  is  too  vast.  It  stands  recorded  in  in- 
numerable monuments  and  documents  where- 
in the  Egyptologist  may  run  and  read  —  as 
he  may.  In  every  great  root-religion  there 
has  been,  and  ever  must  be,  a  dual  present- 
ment, an  exoteric  teaching  and  an  esoteric 


32  THE  LIGHT  OF  MEN 

teaching.  For  the  multitude,  not  fitted  to  re- 
ceive the  more  august  knowledges,  there  will 
be  parables,  symbols,  ceremonial  f  omis ;  while 
the  unveiled  truths,  the  wisdom  of  worlds  in- 
visible, are  reserved  for  the  initiate  few. 
That  Egypt  had  her  secret  doctrine,  not  un- 
derstanded  of  the  people,  and  that  it  was  en- 
tirely hieratic  is  clear.  What  this  innermost 
teaching  was  it  would  not  —  in  spite  of  end- 
less documents  and  endless  commentators 
thereupon — be  possible  to  declare  with  any 
certainty,  because  the  higher  Mystery-teach- 
ing has,  in  all  lands,  been  in  the  main  oral; 
passed  in  secrecy  from  initiate  group  to  in- 
itiate group ;  or,  when  committed  to  definite 
record  at  all,  so  cryptic,  so  veiled  in  figures  as 
to  be  unintelligible  without  a  key — the  key 
of  a  cognate  knowledge. 

In  the  last  five  hundred  years  B.C.  we 
find  developing  alongside  of  the  official  re- 
ligion of  Egypt,  but  quite  apart  from  it,  a 
very  singular  phase  of  personal  religion. 
This  was  known  among  the  Greeks  as  the 
teaching  of  Hermes  Trismegistus  —  Thrice- 
greatest  Hermes.  Hermes  Trismegistus  was 


THE  DAWN  33 

for  a  long  time  regarded  by  the  western 
world  as  a  person,  but  it  is  now  well  known 
that  the  name  is  generic,  and  was  given  to  a 
large  body  of  literature  extending  over  cen- 
turies—  even  into  the  Christian  Era.  A 
great  deal  of  the  Hermetic  literature  has 
been  lost  in  the  revolving  wheels  of  time ;  but 
not  a  little  has  been  preserved  to  us;  some 
practically  entire,  some  in  precious  frag- 
ments, some  imbedded  like  jewels  in  other 
literatures.  They  embody  the  outward  ex- 
pression of  an  inward  light,  and  are  docu- 
ments of  inestimable  value.  These  trac- 
tates —  now  called  Sermons  —  have  recently 
been  rescued  from  a  variety  of  sources,  col- 
lated and  dated  (approximately)  in  accord- 
ance with  their  own  internal  evidence,  and 
nobly  rendered  into  English  from  the  Greek 
and  Latin  texts  by  a  prominent  English 
scholar.*  While  these  teachings  vary  some- 
what in  character  —  as  phases  of  the  same 
thought  in  any  school  individually  vary  — 
they  are  in  the  main  homogeneous,  and  point 
to  one  central  system  for  their  origin.  The 

•  G.  E.  S.  Mead. 


34  THE  LIGHT  OF  MEN 

earliest  of  them  carry  a  distinctly  Egyptian 
colouring ;  later  ones  are  tinged  with  oriental 
modes  of  thought,  with  Greek  modes  of 
thought,  with  nascent  Christian  thought ;  and 
ever,  as  they  advance  down  the  centuries, 
heightening  in  spiritual  significance.  These 
i 'Sermons"  treat  of  many  things.  Of  cos- 
mogenesis,  of  "Divine  Mind,"  of  human  life, 
of  the  nature  of  being,  of  wisdom,  of  vision, 
and  of  personal  conduct.  In  their  breadth, 
purity,  and  exalted  character  we  may  put 
them  beside  our  own  gospel  of  St.  John,  and 
feel  that  the  same  spirit  of  ultimate  mystery 
pervades  them  both.  It  has  been  suggested 
that  these  Hermetic  tractates  belonged  to  the 
Arcana — may  be  part  of  the  sacred  scrip- 
tures in  fact  —  of  those  remarkable  esoteric 
recluse  communities  prevalent  and  coeval 
with  them  in  point  of  time,  and  called  by  the 
names  of  Therapeut,  Essene,  and  others.  If 
so,  we  hold  in  our  hands  a  key  to  the  earliest 
aspect  of  the  Christian  Religion. 

Mediterranean  Asia  has  from  the  most  an- 
cient of  times  formed  the  battle  ground  of 
many  and  varying  forces,  both  of  the  mate- 


THE  DAWN  35 

rial  and  the  immaterial  worlds.  Lying  as  it 
were  at  the  feet  of  those  potent  seats  of  An- 
cient Wisdom  —  Egypt,  Mesopotamia,  Iran, 
with  mighty  India  not  so  far —  and  being  in 
the  track  of  perpetual  commercial  traverse 
from  the  places  of  the  far  east  to  those  of  the 
then-known  west,  it  could  not  escape  becom- 
ing a  species  of  reservoir  for  the  many-col- 
oured streams  of  thought  which  poured  into 
it  through  the  ages.  The  whole  story  of  Asia 
Minor  and  of  Syria  furnishes  interesting 
study;  but  we  only  concern  ourselves  here 
with  an  infinitesimal  strip  of  land — the 
south- westernmost  littoral ;  that  land  settled 
long  ago  by  a  few  tribes  of  the  Semitic  race, 
and  known  to  us  today  as  Palestine. 

The  Jews  from  the  moment  that  they  ap- 
pear in  history,  although  but  a  handful  of 
men,  make  a  peculiar  and  indelible  impress 
upon  it.  Again  and  again  conquered  by  their 
stronger  neighbours,  more  than  once  carried 
into  captivity,  nothing  could  quench  or  eradi- 
cate the  intensity  of  the  racial  spirit.  From 
the  bondage  in  Egypt  and  the  captivity  in 
Babylon  the  Jews  brought  much  tradition, 


36  THE  LIGHT  OF  MEN 

inspiration  and  esoteric  lore,  which  moulded 
the  simple  but  narrow  pastoral  mind,  and 
gave  it  its  final  trend.  The  traditions  de- 
rived from  these  ancient  sources  they  ap- 
propriated to  themselves,  wove  into  their 
own  destiny,  and  adapted  to  their  national 
glorification. 

Narrow,  fanatical,  the  Jews  certainly 
were,  and  narrow,  fanatical  they  always  re- 
mained ;  but  their  concepts  achieved  a  single- 
ness, a  dignity,  and  an  austerity  which  car- 
ried them  steadfast  through  many  vicissi- 
tudes, and  which  contrasts  sharply  with  the 
complexities  of  cult  about  them.  Neither 
Pantheism  nor  the  worship  of  images  found 
any  hold  in  their  economy.  Their  eyes  were 
turned  to  Jahveh,  the  one,  indivisible  God; 
but  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  they  had  a  secret 
doctrine  enshrined  in  their  Kabalah,  which 
the  sagest  among  them  must  have  under- 
stood, the  Jews  as  a  people  never  progressed 
beyond  anthropomorphic  concepts  of  deity. 
God  was  a  great  and  even  terrible  person, 
a  wrathful  and  jealous  God,  capable  of 
mercy  but  prone  to  anger,  to  be  placated  by 


THE  DAWN  37 

rites  and  sacrifices.  He  was  furthermore  the 
exclusive  Lord  of  the  remnant  of  people  who 
thus  worshipped  Him.  Israel  was  His  chosen 
people;  an  obsession  which  gave  the  Jews 
throughout  their  many  misfortunes  a  sense 
of  being  set  apart  from  other  races,  and  en- 
gendered in  them  an  expectation  of  some 
great  destiny  in  store.  From  Zoroastrian- 
ism  they  had  derived  the  idea  that  some  day 
there  was  to  appear  on  earth  a  saviour  for 
the  race ;  an  idea  which  they  adapted  to  their 
personal  needs,  and  the  authority  for  which 
they  sought  to  find  in  corroborative  extracts 
from  their  own  sacred  writings ;  although,  as 
we  now  know,  many  of  these  passages  were 
in  no  way  prophetic,  but  had  reference  to 
purely  local  happenings.  This  saviour  they 
conceived  of  as  a  material  leader  and  libera- 
tor, a  puissant  prince  of  this  world,  who  was 
to  lift  the  foreign  yoke  from  the  necks  of 
God 's  chosen  people,  and  to  establish  in  their 
midst  a  mighty  kingdom.  Such  ideas  as 
these  would  be  natural  enough  in  a  small 
people  —  proud,  exclusive,  but  numerically 
weak  —  which,  by  reason  of  these  very  quali- 


38  THE  LIGHT  OF  MEN 

ties,  had  constantly  been  the  victim  of  the 
lustier  nations  around  it.  A  condition  of 
subjection,  however  mild,  is  always  morally 
enervating,  and  the  Jews  were  no  exception 
to  the  rule ;  but  through  all  chances,  with  an 
irrefragable  tenacity,  they  held  to  the  ex- 
pectation that  there  was  to  arise  one  to  set 
them  free. 

The  question  naturally  suggests  itself: 
why  did  the  new  Avatar  incarnate  as  a  Jew  ? 
The  alternatives  would  lie  between  Jewry 
and  Greece ;  those  two  nations  being  upon  the 
threshold  of  that  new  world  about  to  open. 
Beside  the  cultured  Greek  the  Jew  was  ig- 
norant, prejudiced,  crude.  Furthermore,  as 
the  history  of  Christianity  now  lies  open  to 
us,  the  teachings  of  Jesus  —  conspicuously 
non- Jewish — took  comparatively  little  hold 
upon  the  Jewish  mind.  Only  a  limited  num- 
ber of  Jews  embraced  the  new  faith.  It  was 
essentially  the  Greek  genius  which  was  to 
carry  the  gospel  light  forward  into  the  com- 
ing centuries ;  and  it  was  from  the  passionate 
schools  of  Alexandria  that  was  to  be  flung 
the  torch  which  should  kindle  the  whole 


THE  DAWN  39 

world.  Why  then  was  the  new  Avatar  not 
born  a  Greek  ?  May  it  not  be,  that  the  ethical- 
ly austere  tradition  of  the  Jews  and  their 
uncompromising  monotheism  furnished  per- 
haps a  sturdier  primary  stock  upon  which  to 
graft  the  new  faith,  which  was  to  spread  and 
flower  and  fruit  far  beyond  any  kenning  of 
the  parent  stem? 

One  other  stream  from  the  sources  of  the 
Ancient  Wisdom  must  be  mentioned  here, 
for,  although  it  is  not  apparent  that  it  had 
any  direct  influence  upon  early  Christianity, 
indirectly  it  may  have  done  so.  I  refer  to 
the  Mtthriaca,  or  Mysteries  of  Mithra  — 
Mithra  being  the  Iranian  name  for  the  sun. 
This  cult  appears  to  have  been  a  recrudes- 
cence of  the  Magian  doctrines  of  the  time  of 
the  Achaemenid  Kings  of  Persia,  or,  what  is 
more  likely,  a  blend  of  that  with  other  cults. 
In  the  period  of  ferment  following  the  Mace- 
donian conquests  it  seems  to  have  sprung  in- 
to great  flame  in  eastern  Asia  Minor,  and  to 
have  been  at  its  height  under  Mithridates 
Eupator,  King  of  Pontus.  If  this  prince 
had  succeeded  in  his  dreams  of  European 


40  THE  LIGHT  OF  MEN 

conquest,  the  religious  history  of  the  western 
world  would  have  been  quite  other  than  it  is. 
To  the  imagination  of  the  conquering  Roman 
legions,  this  splendid  cult  of  the  God  of 
Light  and  of  Victory  appealed  dazzlingly. 
It  was  enthusiastically  embraced,  and  car- 
ried back  to  their  own  land,  where  it  was  to 
spread  like  wildfire,  and,  for  the  first  four 
centuries  of  the  Christian  Era,  to  oppose  a 
formidable  rival  to  Christianity  itself. 

It  remains  to  treat  more  specifically  of  the 
Mystery  cults,  and  of  those  who  conserved 
them ;  who  constituted  as  it  were  so  many  al- 
tar lamps  —  trimmed,  burning,  and  ready  — 
within  the  great  temple  of  the  Spirit,  where- 
into  the  Hierophant,  when  he  arrived,  had 
but  to  enter  and  take  possession. 

Mystery  cults  appear  to  have  been  of  very 
great  antiquity.  They  are  said  to  have  been 
established  as  a  means  of  spreading  the 
training  of  the  inner  teaching  to  the  most 
advanced  souls  among  the  laity.  Egypt  is 
often  referred  to  as  the  "  Mother  of  Mys- 
tery", but  the  facts  probably  are  that  she 
was  only  one  of  many  mothers,  with  whom 


THE  DAWN  41 

she  was  coeval,  or  who  antedated  her.  In 
the  remote  past  we  find  myth,  religion,  and 
history  inextricably  commingled;  and  it  is 
not  right  to  treat  myth  as  the  product  of  the 
imagination.  Rather  is  it  a  faint,  unfocus- 
sed  shadowing-f  orth,  a  penumbra  as  it  were 
of  some  long-past  Reality  whose  sun  has 
sunk  too  far  below  the  horizon  of  time  for 
us  to  catch  any  true  outlines  of  it. 

All  of  the  great  peoples  of  antiquity  held 
to  the  idea  that  there  was  an  exact  science 
of  being  which  might  be  learned ;  and  that  it 
was  possible  by  specific  systems  of  training 
for  a  man  so  to  uplift  himself,  so  to  refine 
his  vehicles,  that  he  became  able  to  penetrate 
the  unseen  world,  to  master  some  of  its 
shrouded  secrets,  and  at  least  to  glimpse  that 
goal  of  the  spirit  toward  which  the  * '  pure  in 
heart"  ever  strive.  Doubtless  in  early  days 
enormous  occult  powers  were  vested  in  the 
priesthoods.  They  would  be  the  naturally- 
appointed  guardians  and  dispensers  of  the 
sacred  fire ;  but  in  order  to  enter  the  arcanum 
of  higher  wisdom,  in  order  to  become  an  In- 
itiate, a  man  would  need  to  pass  through  an 


42  THE  LIGHT  OF  MEN 

experience  of  entire  regeneration,  of  utter 
purification  of  the  carnal  man,  of  austere  and 
undeviating  dwelling  "upon  the  mountain 
tops, ' '  both  in  consciousness  and  conduct.  If 
he  should  derogate  from  this  lofty  ideal,  if 
he  should  sink  into  the  valley  levels  of  egoism, 
the  Sun  of  Life  could  not  shine  upon  him, 
and  he  would  forfeit  these  transcendent 
powers.  This  is  probably  what  by  degrees 
came  about,  as  great  religions  crystallised  in- 
to formalism  and  outward  pageant.  The 
pure  flame  of  faith  became  clouded,  ob- 
scured, overlaid  by  sacerdotalism.  Corrup- 
tion crept  in  through  the  seeking  on  the  part 
of  the  celebrants  for  temporal  dominion 
rather  than  for  spiritual  enlargement.  The 
higher  powers  would  forsake  them,  and  then 
be  simulated  in  order  to  deceive  and  corrupt 
the  masses ;  and  as  the  arcane  knowledge  and 
power  declined  in  the  official  hands,  the  mas- 
tery and  the  conservation  of  the  true  secrets 
would  pass  into  other  hands,  more  purified 
and  selfless,  and  thus  more  fit  to  be  its  guard- 
ians. 

From  very  early  times  we  find  existent  in 


THE  DAWN  43 

many  lands  communities  of  Initiates,  the  cir- 
cumference of  their  influence  expanding  at 
the  times  of  high  tides  of  popular  feeling, 
and  again  contracting  as  the  people  fell 
away,  but  ever  inviolately  guarding  their 
sacred  wisdom.  At  the  time  of  the  birth  of 
Jesus  there  were  many  such  communities  of 
mystics.  Egypt,  Syria,  and  Asia  Minor 
were  fairly  honey-combed  by  them.  Even 
Greece  was  not  without  its  ascetic  groups  — 
men  and  women  surrendered  to  holy  living, 
and  known  generally  as  "Orphics,"  or  those 
leading  "the  Orphic  life."  Initiates  were 
bound  by  the  most  solemn  vows  to  divulge 
nothing  of  the  higher  secrets,  therefore  ex- 
actly what  the  innermost  life  of  any  of  these 
communities  was  we  do  not  know ;  but  we  do 
know  that  they  were  composed  of  individuals 
of  a  lofty  type,  who  led  a  life  of  discipline,  of 
contemplation,  and  of  devotion  to  spiritual 
ideals,  and  who  were  able  to  achieve  mentally 
a  higher  vibration  than  ordinary  men,  which 
enabled  them  to  enter  at  will  into  a  state  of 
superconsciousness,  in  which  they  might  re- 
ceive direct  influx  from  the  higher  currents 


44  THE  LIGHT  OF  MEN 

of  spiritual  truth.  They  were  celibates,  and 
lived  secluded  from  the  world,  often  forgot- 
ten by  it,  but  keeping  extended  toward  each 
other — that  is,  from  community  to  com- 
munity —  the  right  hand  of  fellowship,  both 
giving  and  receiving  from  each  other's  spirit- 
ual stores.  Beside  these  inner  schools,  and 
correlated  with  them,  there  were  lay-com- 
munities who  were  not  celibate,  and  not  ad- 
mitted to  the  higher  initiations.  The  mem- 
bers of  these  followed  the  ordinary  avoca- 
tions of  life,  intermarried  among  themselves, 
but  held  more  or  less  intercourse  with  the 
outer  world,  by  whom  they  were  respected 
for  the  simplicity,  serenity,  and  purity  of 
their  lives. 

In  Egypt  these  mystic  communities  were 
known  by  the  name  of  Tlierapeutce,  or  heal- 
ers, because  they  practised  the  healing  of 
bodies  as  well  as  of  souls.  In  Syria  and 
Palestine  we  find  the  Essenes*  the  Ebion- 
ites,  the  Nazorites,  and  others.  The  general 
name  given  to  all  of  them  by  the  Greeks  was 
Gnostics  —  or  knowers. 

*  For  Essenes  see  note  2. 


THE  DAWN  45 

Philo,  the  Hellenised  Jew  (about  the  be- 
ginning of  the  Christian  Era)  in  his  treatise, 
"On  the  Contemplative  Life,"  gives  a  cir- 
cumstantial account  of  the  outward  life  in  a 
Therapeut  Community  near  Lake  Mareotis, 
of  which  he  was  a  lay-brother.  Most  likely 
this  description  would  serve  in  general  as  a 
type  for  all. 

Ancient  mysticism  is  a  subject  of  great 
complexity ;  therefore,  in  suggesting  that  the 
various  schools  mentioned  above  were  in- 
fluenced by  infiltrations  from  each  other,  as 
well  as  from  further  sources,  we  must  never 
lose  sight  of  the  fact  that,  fundamentally  and 
in  essence,  Mysticism  is  One.  The  specific 
manner  of  approach  may  indefinitely  vary, 
but  the  goal  is  always  the  same;  viz,  The 
Vision  —  that  a  man  may  learn  to  lose  him- 
self in  Infinity ;  and  therefore  there  is  a  cer- 
tain deep  rhythm  running  through  all  the  ap- 
parent differences. 

All  of  these  transcendental  groups  had  an 
enormous  influence  upon  nascent  Christian- 
ity. It  becomes  evident  that  it  would  be  a 
simple  and  natural  matter  for  them  to  take 


46  THE  LIGHT  OF  MEN 

over  the  new  dispensation  and  graft  it  upon 
the  old ;  to  catch  up  the  fresh,  vital  impulse, 
and  cause  it  to  fan  the  fires  upon  the  old  al- 
tars into  a  soaring  flame.  This  in  point  of 
fact  is  what  did  take  place.  What  these  com- 
munities knew  about  the  Being  of  God,  of  the 
being  of  man,  and  of  the  Mystical  relation 
of  man  to  God,  was  the  substance  of  what, 
veiled  in  metaphor,  set  forth  in  allegory  and 
parable,  Jesus  had  taught  broadcast.  And 
the  ethics  promulgated  by  the  new  Avatar — 
humility,  unselfishness,  purity,  probity, 
brotherly  love  —  were  those  which  their  own 
doctrines  enjoined  upon  men,  and  which,  in 
their  own  persons,  they  had  always  practised. 
The  first  form  then  which  Christianity  took 
was  Gnostic  —  the  old,  old,  eternal,  imper- 
ishable truths,  plus  the  quickening  and  ir- 
radiate personality  of  Jesus  the  Christ. 

Whether  we  regard  Jesus  from  the  stand- 
point of  the  theologian,  or  from  that  of  the 
free-thinker,  he  remains  forever  the  grand- 
est, the  most  majestically  mystic  figure  in 
history.  As  we  approach  this  figure  the 
grandeur  greatens,  the  mystery  deepens  and 


THE  DAWN  47 

dazzles.  He  as  it  were  recedes  into  it.  It 
engulfs  him  like  a  luminous  cloud.  The  final 
personality  eludes  us,  and  doubtless,  to  the 
limited  vision  of  finite  existence,  always  will. 
Yet  to  those  to  whom  the  life  of  the  spirit  is 
the  real  life,  the  all  in  all,  this  august  Pres- 
ence will  always  be  the  central  object  of  ab- 
sorbing and  reverent  study.  To  explain  this 
personality  objectively,  as  simply  that  of  a 
perfected  —  possibly  inspired — man,  is  ob- 
viously not  tenable.  The  light  which  rad- 
iates from  it  is  too  overwhelming.  Is  he  not 
the  Revealer  —  the  Bringer-near  ?  —  the 
personified  Presence?  Yet  who  shall  ade- 
quately explain  or  interpret  this  Presence? 
The  Mystery  remains. 

Human,  superlatively  human,  in  all  his 
outward  relations,  full  of  tenderness  and 
sympathy  for  the  whole  race,  forgiving,  com- 
passionate, and  long-suffering,  he  stands  as 
the  type  of  embodied  Love.  By  the  magnet- 
ism of  this  selfless  love  he  drew  men  to  him ; 
and,  in  the  sense  that  he  is  the  great  exponent 
of  love,  Jesus  may  be  regarded  by  us  as  our 
Redeemer,  for  love  is  the  redeemer  of  the 


48  THE  LIGHT  OF  MEN 

fettered  soul.  Yet  upon  the  subjective  side 
he  remains  folded  in  this  irradiate  effluence 
which  we  feel,  but  cannot  plumb.  Power 
was  in  every  word  which  he  uttered,  the 
power  of  Wisdom,  the  power  of  Love,  the 
power  of  Power  itself.  We  may  study  them 
and  re-study  them,  and  ever  garner  deeper 
meanings.  The  arena  of  his  activities  was 
small,  the  scope  of  the  effect  of  these  activ- 
ities never  to  be  measured.  Even  as,  when 
one  casts  a  stone  into  a  pool,  from  the  one 
splash  of  its  impact  there  will  break  circles 
of  diverging  ripples,  and  outside  of  those 
other  circles,  and  beyond  larger  circles  again, 
until  the  wave-stir  laps  remotest  shores,  so 
those  incomparable  words  —  making  all  al- 
lowance for  the  imperfections  of  early  redac- 
tions—  have  come  down  through  nineteen 
centuries,  and  wake  in  us  today  answering 
vibrations  of  aspiration  and  inspiration. 

Religions,  like  rivers,  are  purest  at  their 
sources.  If  we  would  know  the  pristine 
quality  of  a  stream,  we  do  not  test  the  waters 
of  the  lower  levels,  where  they  may  indeed 
spread  out,  a  fair  estuary,  but  where  also 


THE  DAWN  49 

they  come  down  charged  with  silt  and  detri- 
tus, and  the  complex,  subtle  pollutions  from 
the  many  shores  they  have  laved.  We  follow 
it  back  to  the  fountain-head,  where  gush  the 
feeding  springs,  limpid  and  electric.  So,  if 
we  would  know  what  the  gospel  of  Jesus  the 
Christ — those ' i  good  tidings  of  great  joy  " — 
meant  to  those  men  and  women  who  received 
it,  and  the  generations  immediately  follow- 
ing, we  must  go  back  some  nineteen  hundred 
years  to  the  time  when  it  was  still  quick  in 
the  hearts  of  men.  Christianity,  in  these 
days,  was  not  even  a  coherent  movement,  but 
a  fire  burning  among  scattered  groups  of 
men.  For  the  first  fifty  years  or  so  these 
groups  were  not  even  called  Christians,  but 
were  known  by  the  old  names  of  Nazoraei, 
(Nazorites),  Ebionites,  and  others.  Accord- 
ing to  Epiphanius  the  first  Christians  were 
called  "lesseai,"  which  suggests  Philo's 
"Esseans  or  Essenes."  It  is  perhaps  fur- 
ther suggestive  that  at  about  this  period  the 
Essene  communities  seem  to  have  disbanded 
and  disappeared,  as  Essenes.  The  matter 
of  names  at  this  remote  time  is  obscure. 


50  THE  LIGHT  OF  MEN 

What  we  do  know  is  that  these  first  Chris- 
tians— by  whatever  name  they  may  have 
been  called  —  were  alive  with  the  flame  of  the 
spirit ;  more  concerned  to  live  the  life,  and  to 
gather  high  spiritual  experience  than  to  weld 
themselves  into  an  organised  body.  That 
was  to  come  about  later,  through  more  mil- 
itant agencies.  They  however  formed  the 
nuclei  of  those  " churches"  to  whom  Paul  — 
who  himself  bears  the  essential  stamp  of  the 
Gnostic,  versed  in  the  tenets  and  using  the 
symbology  of  Gnosticism — wrote  his  Epis- 
tles. 

We  have  already  stated  that  initial  Chris- 
tianity was  essentially  Gnostic  in  character ; 
that  it  was  not  so  much  a  revelation  of  new 
truth  as  a  re-awakening,  a  re-vivifying  of 
world-old  truth,  of  that  Ancient  Wisdom 
cherished  in  the  hearts  of  the  Knowers  from 
all  time.  Did  not  the  Master  himself  de- 
clare, "  Think  not  that  I  am  come  to  destroy 
the  law  or  the  prophets.  I  am  not  come  to 
destroy  but  to  fulfil. ' '  ?  (Matt.  V.  17) .  That 
this  fact  was  well  recognised  by  the  Fathers 
of  the  church  is  attested  by  many  passages 


THE  DAWN  51 

in  the  Patristic  writings;  and  Augustine 
states  it  very  succinctly:  "That  which  is 
called  the  Christian  Religion  existed  among 
the  ancients  and  never  did  not  exist,  from  the 
beginning  of  the  human  race  until  Christ 
came  in  the  flesh,  at  which  time  the  true  re- 
ligion which  already  existed  began  to  be 
called  Christianity. " 

That  " Christian  Mysteries"  were  of  the 
teaching,  and  that  Mystery  initiations  were 
practised  in  the  early  church,  is  borne  out  by 
numerous  passages  in  the  writings  of  the 
Ante-Mcene  Fathers. 

Wonderfully  pure,  wonderfully  sublimat- 
ed, wonderfully  Christ-like  was  life  among 
these  earliest  Christians ;  a  broad,  harmoni- 
ous expression,  nearer  to  the  ideal  which  the 
Master  endeavoured  to  establish  upon  earth 
than  anything  which — except  sporadically, 
and  always  subject  to  persecution  —  has  been 
seen  since  the  first  two  centuries  of  his  Era. 
Love  was  the  keynote  of  it;  brotherly  love 
the  actuating  principle  toward  their  fellow 
men,  and  exalted  devotion  to  God  the  fuel 
which  fed  the  altar  fires  in  the  Holy-of -holies 


52  THE  LIGHT  OF  MEN 

of  their  own  hearts.  For  reasons  presently 
to  be  touched  upon,  very  little  of  the  litera- 
ture of  these  Gnostic  Christians  has  come 
down  to  us;  but  the  study  of  such  precious 
fragments  as  we  have  seems  to  lift  one  into 
another  realm,  into  a  rarefied  and  clarified 
atmosphere  above  the  ordinary  cleavages  of 
mortal  thought.  Here  the  white  light  of 
spiritual  power  permeates  the  being.  Heav- 
en seems  very  near ;  the  veil  between  the  seen 
and  the  unseen  luminously  thin. 

Very  different  all  this  from  the  Chris- 
tianity of  that  Gregory,  called  great,  under 
whom  the  separation  of  the  western,  or  Rom- 
ish, from  the  Eastern  church  took  place,  and 
the  firm  foundations  of  a  mighty  temporal 
dominion  were  laid ;  very  different  from  the 
fanaticism  of  the  Middle  Ages ;  very  different 
from  the  rack  and  torch  of  the  "Holy  Of- 
fice;" very  different  from  the  lurid  propa- 
ganda of  Calvin;  very  different  from  any 
reign  of  bigotry  and  terror  whose  records  be 
written  in  tears,  and  fire,  and  blood. 

The  mind  likes  to  linger  over  the  picture 
of  what  the  history  of  Christianity  in  Europe 


THE  DAWN  53 

might  have  been  had  this  exalted  and  gentle 
form  of  faith  prevailed;  but  it  was  not  to 
prevail.  It  was  to  go  down  before  the  storm 
of  a  ranker  and  narrower  presentment. 
Saintly  natures  are  never  militant,  never 
self-assertive.  They  offer  an  easy  target  for 
the  arrogant  and  the  masterful.  In  its  very 
nature,  its  purity,  its  elusive  abstraction,  one 
may  read  the  secret  of  the  undoing  of  Gnos- 
tic Christianity.  And  doubtless — since  in 
the  Eternal  Economy  there  is  no  such  thing 
as  chance  —  that  form  of  Christianity  sur- 
vived which  was  best  adapted  to  the  natures 
and  necessities  of  the  superbly  virile,  but 
crude  young  races  which  were  coming  for- 
ward. We  must  believe  so. 

Almost  from  the  beginning  there  seems  to 
have  existed  within  the  fold  of  the  Prince  of 
Peace  another  element — an  element  com- 
posed of  the  more  ignorant  among  the  Christ 
following;  narrow,  aggressive,  self-seeking 
spirits  who,  not  grasping  the  real  significance 
of  the  Master's  teaching,  translated  it  to 
promise  personal  benefit  to  themselves. 
These  presently  acquired  the  arrogance  of  a 


54  THE  LIGHT  OF  MEN 

faction.  Ambition,  fanaticism,  and  the  per- 
sonal lust  for  dominion  sounded  the  ever- 
familiar  cry  of  orthodoxy  versus  heterodoxy. 
Heated  controversies  over  hair-splitting  ab- 
stractions rent  the  fold.  Heresy-hunting  be- 
gan in  earnest.  More  than  one  who  had  been 
revered  as  a  saint  found  himself  anathema- 
tised as  a  sinner.  In  the  latter  part  of  the 
first  century  there  was  established  in  Alex- 
andria a  catechetical  school  called  the  Didas- 
caleion.  It  was  a  school  intended  primarily 
for  children,  but  quickly,  in  the  hands  of 
highly  trained  teachers,  it  acquired  a  posi- 
tion of  authority.  In  the  Didascaleion  were 
laid  the  foundations  of  Catholic  Christianity. 
It  becomes  evident  that  if  judgment  is  to  be 
passed  upon  men  or  things  there  must  be  es- 
tablished some  standard,  some  fixed  code  by 
which  they  shall  be  adjudged.  Of  this  fact 
the  "orthodox"  brethren  were  only  too  con- 
scious. The  Caesarising  of  the  new  religion 
by  the  conversion  of  the  world-emperor  gave 
the  needed  opportunity  and  authority.  In 
the  year  325  A.D.  the  first  ecclesiastical 
council  was  called  together  at  Nicaea,  in  Asia 


THE  DAWN  55 

Minor ;  and  what  a  turbulent  gathering  this 
council  was  is  a  matter  of  history.  Many 
momentous  questions  were  settled  (!)  A 
certain  number  of  sacred  texts  were  selected 
from  the  great  mass  of  writings  of  the  day, 
and,  under  the  title  of  the  canon  of  the  New 
Testament,  were  authorised  as  the  only  ones. 
A  creed  was  drawn  up  and  adopted.  And, 
since  the  real  key  to  cosmogenesis  was  in  pro- 
cess of  being  lost,  some  scheme  of  redemp- 
tion had  to  be  formulated,  certain  elemen- 
tary points  of  dogma  were  laid  down,  and 
served  as  foundation  for  vast,  amorphous  ac- 
cretion since  gathered  about  them.  The 
famous  "Decretals"  of  a  semi-barbaric  em- 
peror established  final  authority,  and  riveted 
upon  the  young  religion  those  chains  in  which 
it  has  travailed — aye,  even  unto  this  day. 

The  narrow,  the  materialistic  triumphed ; 
the  idealistic  went  to  the  wall.  Not  only 
were  the  Gnostic  Christians  driven  forth 
from  the  fold,  but  their  writings,  wherever 
possible,  were  seized  and  destroyed ;  or,  what 
is  worse,  mutilated  and  distorted  to  convey 
meanings  quite  other  than  the  originals. 


56  THE  LIGHT  OF  MEN 

Fragments  of  Gnostic  writings  have  come 
down  to  us  embedded  in  the  hostile  criticisms 
of  their  enemies.  Three  original  mystic 
codices  have  come  down  to  us,  though  not  in 
their  entirety.  But  if  we  accept  the  latest 
Trismegistic  literature  as  pertaining  to  Gnos- 
tic Christianity — for  which  there  is  pre- 
sumptive evidence — then  we  have  a  number 
of  early  Christian  documents  of  a  rare  in- 
spiring grace.  Very  likely  others  remained 
pigeonholed  in  that  wonderful  Alexandrian 
library,  burned  at  the  time  of  the  Moham- 
medan conquest,  in  the  year  640  A.  D.  But 
the  spirit  of  Gnosticism  did  not  wholly  per- 
ish. In  many  small  schismatic,  and  always 
persecuted,  sects  (the  Waldenses,  the  Al- 
bigenses,  the  Hussites,  the  Quietists,  etc.),  in 
certain  secret  societies  (as  the  Rosicrucians, 
the  Cathari,  the  Paterini,  etc.),  and  in  num- 
berless saintly  and  illumined  personalities, 
the  old  flame  has  burst  forth  again  and  again. 
The  Nicene  Creed  (differing  somewhat  in 
form  however  from  that  in  which  we  now 
know  it)  takes  precedence  in  point  of  time 
of  the  two  other  Christian  creeds ;  at  least  a 


THE  DAWN  57 

hundred  years  of  the  Apostles'  creed  (so 
named  because  of  its  containing  twelve 
clauses),  and  considerably  longer  of  the 
Athanasian  (which  had  nothing  to  do  with 
Athanasius  except  to  use  his  name).  It  was 
evolved  out  of  certain  briefer  esoteric  formu- 
lae, from  the  first  the  property  of  the  Chris- 
tian inner  teaching,  which,  at  the  hands  of 
these  more  ignorant  fanatics,  received  gross 
misinterpretation  and  materialisation.  Un- 
speakable mystic  truths,  to  the  outer  world 
only  to  be  faintly  shadowed  forth  in  symbols, 
were  thus  converted  by  those  incapable  of 
rightly  understanding  and  interpreting  them 
into  a  repulsive  materialism.  From  these 
misconceptions  arose  the  distortions  of 
Christian  theology. 

The  doctrines  of  original  sin,  of  a  wrathful 
God,  of  an  omnipotent  devil,  of  an  endless 
hell ;  and  finally  of  vicarious  atonement,  are 
such  monstrous  perversions  that  it  seems  in- 
credible that  rational  and  intelligent  men 
should  have  held  them  through  so  many  cen- 
turies. The  idea  of  an  anthropomorphic 
god  —  a  great  person  —  separate  from  his 


58  THE  LIGHT  OF  MEN 

universe  and  implacable  toward  it ;  a  being  to 
be  dreaded,  and  propitiated  by  offerings  and 
sacrifices,  is  the  idea  of  the  tribal  god,  born 
of  a  crude  and  superstitious  fear,  the  pro- 
duct of  the  primitive  mind,  unable  to  rise  to 
the  level  of  loftier  concepts;  and  is  totally 
unworthy  of  an  advanced  civilisation.  Chris- 
tian theology  has  invested  Ineffable  Deity 
with  purely  human  attributes;  qualities  of 
which  any  well-developed  man  would  be 
ashamed.  But  we  may  not  attribute  quali- 
ties of  any  sort  to  the  Absolute.  God  is. 
God  is  Informing  Spirit,  immanent  in  all 
things.  God  has  not  only  created  His  uni- 
verse ;  He  is  His  universe.  Christian  the- 
ology has  made  of  Christianity  a  religion  of 
gloom  and  fear  instead  of  a  religion  of  joy 
and  inspiration.  It  has  greatly  dwelt  upon 
sin — "the  mystery  of  sin."  Scientifically 
considered,  sin  (in  the  dogmatic  sense)  does 
not  exist.  Sin  is  ignorance  —  shadow  —  ab- 
sence of  the  light.  As  man  evolves  and  be- 
comes established  in  consciousness,  the  lower, 
more  animal  instincts  are  eliminated;  they 
gradually  drop  away  from  him,  as  trees  shed 


THE  DAWN  59 

their  dead  leaves  in  autumn.  There  is  noth- 
ing (in  the  theological  sense)  to  atone  for. 
There  is  nothing  (in  the  theological  sense)  to 
be  saved  from.  We  are  not  "worms,"  we 
are  not  "miserable  sinners,"  we  are  not 
"children  of  sin."  We  are  children  of  the 
light;  and  at  the  core  of  every  one  of  us  is 
the  Divine  spark,  the  great  potentiality 
which  shall  urge  us  upward,  and  ever  up- 
ward, until  we  learn  to  find  ourselves  in  our 
Source. 

We  are  created  creatures  of  free  will, 
functioning  within  the  scope  of  the  great, 
fixed,  causal  laws,  th%at  we  may  by  our  own 
choice  of  good  or  evil  —  that  is,  the  higher  or 
the  lower  —  accomplish  our  own  evolution. 
Thus  does  the  Creator  make  us  participants 
in  His  own  divine  processes.  From  incarna- 
tion to  incarnation,  through  a  stupendous 
evolutionary  cycle,  ever  enlarging  faculty, 
ever  expanding  consciousness,  forging  slow- 
ly to  purer  and  purer  estates,  the  soul  of  man 
gathers  that  experience  by  which  it  is  to 
grow.  That  misdoing — the  breaking  of  mor- 
al and  spiritual  laws  —  should  bring  its  own 


60  THE  LIGHT  OF  MEN 

nemesis  is  as  fixed  a  fact  as  that,  if  we  put 
our  hands  into  fire,  we  shall  get  burned.  Set 
in  an  environment  of  immutable  laws,  we 
are  yet,  within  the  scope  of  these  laws,  en- 
dowed with  full  choice.  We  may  move  con- 
sonantly with  them,  or  we  may  move  against 
them.  We  may  travel  the  wide  path  of  self- 
indulgence,  or  the  more  stringent  one  of  self- 
development.  We  may  choose  between  the 
good  or  the  evil ;  but  we  are  finally  our  own 
redeemers,  our  own  judges.  Every  act,  every 
word,  every  thought,  every  desire  even,  is 
self -registering  upon  the  impalpable  ethers 
of  the  Astral ;  and  from  its  record  there  is  no 
appeal.  Ourselves  must  face  that  self-made 
record  in  the  hour  when  we  slip  off  this 
sheath  which  we  call  our  body.  Ourselves 
must  cast  up  that  account — debit  or  credit, 
as  it  may  be — and  adjust  the  equation.  To 
advance  or  retrograde  rests  with  ourselves, 
now  and  here.  By  renunciation  in  thought 
and  conduct  of  the  lower  man,  and  coordi- 
nately  the  assumption  in  thought  and  act  of 
the  higher  man,  we  may  infinitely  stimulate 
and  extend  our  advance.  Equally  we  may, 


THE  DAWN  61 

by  disobedience  to  the  call  of  the  highest  with- 
in us,  wilfully  pervert  or  delay  that  advance 
for  ages ;  but  we  can  never  stay  the  action  of 
the  fundamental  law.  Spiritual  evolution  is 
as  fixed  a  fact  as  the  forces  which  govern  the 
orbits  of  the  heavenly  bodies. 

It  is  the  perversions  of  Christian  theology, 
with  its  false  premises  and  falser  conclu- 
sions, which  are  responsible  for  the  long 
schism  between  science  and  religion. 

The  idea  is  very  commonly  held  that  there 
is  some  ineradicable  antagonism  between 
science  and  religion.  This  is  a  mistake.  If 
it  were  not,  there  would  be  no  basis  of  truth  in 
either.  Science  and  religion  are  both  study- 
ing the  same  thing — Life-,  but  one  is  at  the 
circumference  of  things,  and  the  other  at  the 
centre.  In  reality  science  and  religion  are 
one.  The  ancient  world  found  that  out  ages 
ago,  and  the  modern  world  is  in  process  of 
finding  it  out.  The  trouble  lies  entirely  in 
the  conception  and  use  of  terms.  We  are  ac- 
customed when  we  speak  of  religion  to  think 
of  it  as  dogmatic  formalism,  as  a  hard-and- 
fast  theology ;  but  religion  per  se  is  not  that. 


62  THE  LIGHT  OF  MEN 

It  is  the  "fire  in  the  heart"  —  that  upleaping 
flame  which  unites  with  the  unseen,  and 
brings  down  the  lightning-flash  of  illumina- 
tion. These  things  are  not  the  product  of 
ratiocination,  nor  do  they  come  about  through 
any  intellectual  processes  whatsoever.  They 
result  from  the  opening  of  the  hidden  sluices 
of  Spirit,  revealing  the  well-springs  of  Be- 
ing; and  to  find  them  the  investigator  must 
turn  the  search  inward.  The  trouble  with 
modern  science  is  that  it  looks  at  things  too 
much  from  the  outside ;  for  there  is  an  eso- 
teric science  —  a  science  of  things  unseen — 
as  well  as  an  exoteric  science,  and  the  one 
furnishes  the  key  to  the  other.  Exoteric 
science,  although  it  can  boast  many  achieve- 
ments, is  a  thing  of  yesterday.  Esoteric 
science  carries  the  experience  of  the  ages.  It 
has  been  evolved  by  investigators  of  a  higher 
type  than  any  now  practising;  souls  of  a 
more  advanced  and  subtle  training,  who  have 
been  able  to  penetrate  easily  to  the  realm  of 
causation,  and  to  whom  therefore  the  cryp- 
tic facts  of  the  invisible  world,  and  the  mo- 
tive impulses  of  those  f  unctionings  which  we 


THE  DAWN  63 

call  Nature,  have  presented  an  open  book. 
It  is  this  aspect  of  science  which  is  one  with 
religion;  and,  although  the  two  sides  of 
science  seem  to  be  out  of  touch,  it  needs  no 
unusual  perspicacity  to  perceive  that  they 
are  approaching  each  other.  Modern  science 
by  very  reason  of  its  experimental  nature  is 
relative,  partial,  shifting.  Each  new  dis- 
covery changes  the  focus ;  throws  fresh  lights, 
fresh  shadows,  augments  here,  erases  there. 
Its  facts  are  only  fragments  of  facts.  It  gets 
only  a  fraction  of  an  arc  in  its  survey  of  the 
curving  horizons.  With  religion  (we  are 
using  the  term  entirely  in  its  transcendental 
sense)  relativity  disappears.  It  cannot  be 
partial,  empyric,  or  shifting.  It  stands  at 
the  centre  and  faces  The  Whole.  It  knows 
at  first  hand ;  —  it  knows. 

Science  is  standing  today  acknowledgedly 
upon  the  margins  of  a  vast,  mysterious,  (to 
it)  uncharted  sea,  seething  with  possibilities. 
It  recognises  that  therein  it  must  cast  its  nets 
if  it  would  gather  further  returns.  If  it 
would  but  lay  aside  its  professional  egoism 
and  prejudices,  if  it  would  be  willing  to  avail 


64  THE  LIGHT  OF  MEN 

itself  of  the  data  of  this  world-old  know- 
ledge —  break  with  one  plunge  from  circum- 
ference to  centre,  what  a  sunburst — what  a 
widening  of  horizons !  The  complex  would 
become  simplex;  the  obscure,  transparent; 
the  fragmentary  and  dislocated,  integral  and 
harmonious. 

Yea ;  are  we  not  like  children  playing  upon 
the  shores  of  life,  thinking  every  rocky  pool 
left  by  the  ebb  a  world  in  itself?  But  be- 
hold !  Softly,  insidiously,  the  tide  creeps  — 
creeps.  Nothing  can  stay  it.  By  littles  and 
littles  it  lifts — lifts,  till  the  microcosms  be 
all  overswept ;  be  swept  into  the  macrocosm ; 
be  not  even  in  aspect  parts  or  fragments,  but 
one  interacting,  stupendous  whole.  So  shall 
the  tide  of  Spirit  sweep ;  and  science  and  re- 
ligion shall  again,  as  of  old,  know  themselves 
as  one  and  indivisible.  And  perhaps  that 
day  is  not  so  far ! 

In  that  day  the  practical,  the  rationalistic, 
the  scientific  minds  shall  perceive  that  the 
founder  of  the  Christian  religion  is  not  a 
myth,  not  a  symbol,  not  a  figment  of  dogma, 
not  an  impossibility  of  any  sort,  but  an  es- 


THE  DAWN  65 

sential  and  glorious  Reality.  They  will 
recognise  in  him  the  Informer,  the  Revealer, 
the  Bringer-near.  They  will  know  that  he 
took  upon  himself  a  human  form  and  came 
familiarly  among  men  that  he  might  stir 
afresh  the  darkling  waters  of  the  spiritual 
Bethesda,  so  that  every  man  who  would 
might  lave  himself  in  the  secrets  of  cosmo- 
genesis,  and  become  a  knower.  Jesus,  the 
Christ,  was  the  archetype  of  perfection.  In 
his  own  person  he  demonstrated  to  the  eyes 
of  men  the  power  and  the  glory  of  Sonship ; 
and  he  called  upon  all  men,  as  he  is  still  call- 
ing upon  all  men,  who  would  come  after  him 
to  take  up  their  crosses  and  follow  him;  in 
other  words,  to  purge  themselves  of  the  lower 
self  —  of  the  carnal  dross  which  weighs  them 
down ;  to  lighten  themselves,  even  as  an  aero- 
naut lightens  his  machine  by  flinging  out 
superfluous  ballast;  and  to  rise  —  to  rise  — 
to  rise,  until  they  too  shall  enter  into  con- 
sciousness of  the  Light. 

Christianity  is  not  a  Mediaeval  dream.  It 
is  not  a  something  vested  in  dogma,  in  ritual, 
in  conventional  authority  of  any  kind.  Chris- 


66  THE  LIGHT  OF  MEN 

tianity  is  Life;  the  life  of  the  Spirit  func- 
tioning through  flesh ;  that  white  light  which 
shall  illumine  the  darkest  corners  of  human 
experience.  It  is  simple  fatuity  to  claim,  as 
so  many  are  doing  today,  that  Christianity 
is  exhausted,  is  a  moribund  superstition,  a 
passing  mist.  Except  most  sporadically, 
Christianity,  for  the  past  seventeen  cen- 
turies, cannot  be  said  even  to  have  been  tried. 
That  the  day  of  dogmatic  Christianity,  of  the 
warped  outlook  and  inlook  of  the  accepted 
theologies,  may  be  passing  is  true  enough; 
and  the  sooner  the  better.  Only  then  shall 
men  clearly  find  in  Christianity  not  a  Sacri- 
fice but  a  supreme  Vision. 

In  some  respects  the  present  age  offers  a 
certain  resemblance  to  conditions  prevailing 
two  thousand  years  ago.  Now  as  then  there 
is  change,  disintegration  in  social  conditions, 
a  spirit  of  iconoclasm,  a  casting  away  of  the 
husks  of  traditional  and  conventional  au- 
thority; and  above  all  a  burning  restless- 
ness in  the  minds  of  men.  All  these  things 
presage  a  readjustment  of  ideals ;  and  upon 


THE  DAWN  67 

every  side  one  may  read  the  signs  of  the 
dawning  of  a  new  era.  We  are  aware  of 
strange  quickenings,  subtle  stirrings,  indef- 
inite vibrations  of  unexpressed  power.  These 
are  the  fore-echoes  of  the  footsteps  of  the 
new  generations  coming  forward ;  the  young, 
consecrate  humanity  which  shall  inaugurate 
a  glorious  movement  both  of  iconoclasm  and 
of  re-construction ;  which  shall  break  the  fet- 
ters of  society  and  lead  it  to  nobler  achieve- 
ment than  it  has  ever  known.  Fearless,  self- 
confident,  triumphant,  it  moves — as  the 
eagle  flies — toward  the  light.  It  will  shake 
the  old  earth  with  the  power  of  a  new  appre- 
hension, a  new  sympathy.  And  upon  the 
gonfalons  of  this  legion  are  inscribed  great 
ideals ;  ideals  of  selflessness,  ideals  of  unity, 
ideals  of  brotherhood  and  the  solidarity  of 
man.  Are  not  these  the  ideals  of  pristine 
Christianity  ?  Surely ;  with  one  thing  more 
which  the  new  Christianity  shall  give  them ; 
a  sense  of  the  Manifest  God ;  a  sense  of  the 
Immanent  Presence  in  every  atom  of  this 
pulsing,  whirling,  dynamic  universe.  And 


68  THE  LIGHT  OF  MEN 

shall  not  this  social  and  spiritual  renascence 
exemplify  that  "second  coming  of  Christ," 
so  often  prophesied  and  so  blindly  expected 
as  a  material  event;  in  reality  no  material 
thing  whatever,  but  the  waking  of  the  con- 
scious divinity  in  man  ? 

Nothing  is  done  without  fire.  Ethics  alone 
are  not  enough.  Humanitarianism  alone  is 
not  enough.  Philosophy  is  cold  and  leads 
men,  disappointed  in  results,  to  Stoicism. 
Behind  and  through  all  we  need  the  pure 
flame  of  a  living  and  indestructible  faith. 
We  need  the  quenchless  fires  within  the  heart, 
the  glowing  heats  of  eternal  passion,  the  pas- 
sion for  holiness,  to  burn  away  from  before 
our  feet  the  chaff  of  habit,  of  privilege,  of 
convention,  and  to  fuse  the  discordant  ele- 
ments of  human  existence  into  one  irre- 
sistible, candent  aspiration.  Surely,  surely 
this  is  the  religion  universal.  This  is  the 
new — old — religion  of  Eternal  Wisdom. 
This  is  the  religion  preached  and  taught  over 
the  hills  and  among  the  vales  of  far-away 
Palestine  two  thousand  years  ago  by  the 


THE  DAWN  69 

great  Avatar,  Jesus  of  Nazareth.  Do  not 
think  that  the  influence  of  that  teaching  is  ex- 
hausted. In  its  true  essence  and  power  it  is 
just  beginning.* 


*  The  above  passage  was  written  before  the  rise  of  the  great 
war-cloud.  When  that  has  cleared  away  it  will  be  found  to  be 
doubly  true. 


II 

JESUS  OF  NAZAEETH 


JESUS  OF  NAZARETH1 

Some  time  before  the  dawn  there  comes 
over  the  waiting  earth  a  strange  hush.  The 
wind  dies  away  and  a  heavy  chill  falls.  The 
darkness  is  more  profound ;  the  silence  more 
intense.  It  is  a  moment  between  something 
past  and  gone  and  something  yet  to  be  —  in- 
choate, unknown,  but  whose  vibrations  are 
already  upon  the  air.  It  is  as  if  Nature  were 
somehow  catching  her  breath.  Even  so,  in 
the  mighty  march  of  Time,  there  come  mo- 
ments of  pause,  of  silence  as  it  were,  when  it 
would  seem  as  if  Life  were  catching  its 
breath  in  a  strained,  mysterious,  all-compel- 
ling expectancy.  In  such  a  silence,  some 
two  thousand  years  ago,  there  arose  the 
sound  of  a  voice — the  voice  of  one  crying  in 
the  Wilderness,  "  Prepare  ye  the  way  of  the 
Lord;  make  his  paths  straight!" 

A  strange,  stern,  ascetic  figure  is  this  of 
John,  the  last  of  the  great  prophets  of  Israel, 


74  THE  LIGHT  OF  MEN 

as  he  emerges  upon  the  scene,  to  vanish  from 
it  again  presently;  a  figure  rudely  clad  in 
skins,  gaunt  with  fasting  and  vigil,  on  fire 
with  prophetic  vision.  Jesus  himself  later 
said  of  John:  "What  went  ye  out  into  the 
wilderness  to  see  ?  A  reed  shaken  with  the 
wind  ?  But  what  went  ye  out  for  to  see  ?  A 
man  clothed  in  soft  raiment?  Behold  they 
that  wear  soft  clothing  are  in  kings'  houses. 
But  what  went  ye  out  for  to  see?  A  pro- 
phet? yea,  I  say  unto  you,  and  more  than  a 
prophet.  For  this  is  he  of  whom  it  is  writ- 
ten, Behold  I  send  my  messenger  before  thy 
face,  which  shall  prepare  thy  way  before 
thee.  Verily  I  say  unto  you,  among  them 
that  are  born  of  women  there  hath  not  risen 
a  greater  than  John  the  Baptist:  notwith- 
standing he  that  is  least  in  the  kingdom  of 
heaven  is  greater  than  he."  (Matt.  XI  7- 
11)  By  this  he  meant  that  John,  mighty 
and  inspired  soul  though  he  was,  was  still  not 
so  utterly  purged  as  those  perfected  ones,  who 
having  passed  every  test,  compose  the  inner 
circle  of  Radiant  Ones  and  dwell  in  a  spirit- 
ual consciousness  of  which  we  indeed  dream, 


JESUS  OP  NAZARETH  75 

but  of  which  we  can  form  yet  but  little  con- 
cept. John  says  of  himself:  "He  that  is 
of  the  earth  is  earthly,  and  speaketh  of  the 
earth :  he  that  cometh  from  heaven  is  above 
all."  (John  III  31) 

In  one  of  the  gospels  we  are  given  the  gen- 
ealogy of  John.  It  does  not  matter.  The 
physical  lineage  of  a  great  soul  is  of  no  im- 
portance whatever.  The  learned  of  today  in- 
form us  upon  plausible  authority  that  John 
was  of  the  community  of  the  Essenes2  be- 
cause of  his  ascetic  practices,  and  also  be- 
cause he  administered  the  rite  of  baptism  by 
immersion,  which  was  in  use  among  the  Es- 
senes but  which  was  foreign  to  the  customs 
of  the  Jews.  It  is  more  than  likely ;  yet  it  is 
enough  for  us  to  know  that  "there  was  a 
man  sent  from  God  whose  name  was  John. 
The  same  came  for  a  witness,  to  bear  witness 
of  the  Light,  that  all  men  through  him 
might  believe.  He  was  not  that  Light,  but 
was  sent  to  bear  witness  of  that  Light." 
(John  I  6-8)  In  the  desolate  places  of  his 
recluse  life — a  life  concerned  with  the 
solemn  wrestlings  of  the  spirit,  with  trance, 


76  THE  LIGHT  OF  MEN 

with  visions,  and  with  high  communings  — 
the  divine  command  was  laid  upon  this  man 
to  go  forth  into  the  world  as  the  herald  of  a 
new  day.  And  in  no  uncertain  voice  he  pro- 
claimed it:  "Repent  ye!  for  the  Kingdom  of 
heaven  is  at  hand!" 

It  was  a  voice  that  shook  the  stagnant  and 
lax  society  of  the  hour  to  its  core,  that  stirred 
men's  souls  to  a  quickened  self -search,  a  new 
hunger.  Over  the  rugged  hills  and  through 
the  sleepy  valleys  of  Judaea  rang  the  call  that 
a  new  prophet  had  arisen  in  Israel ;  and  the 
multitude  responded,  as  the  multitude  al- 
ways responds  when  a  masterful  voice  of 
leadership  arises  in  its  midst.  Restless  and 
discontented  hearts,  fearful  and  timid  hearts, 
guilty  hearts,  hearts  keyed  to  a  high  aspira- 
tion, all  flocked  to  him  as  the  iron  filings  are 
drawn  to  the  magnet.  "Then  went  out  to 
him  Jerusalem,  and  all  Judaea,  and  all 
the  region  round  about  Jordan,  and  were 
baptised  of  him  in  Jordan,  confessing  their 
sins."  (Matt.  Ill  5-6)  It  was  what  in  these 
days  we  should  call  "a  great  revival" — a 


JESUS  OF  NAZARETH  77 

period  of  enormous  religious  ferment  and 
excitement. 

The  curious,  the  critical,  and  the  hypocrit- 
ical came  also,  and  John  scored  them  in  burn- 
ing words.  When  he  saw  many  of  the  Phari- 
sees and  Sadducees3  coming  to  his  baptism 
he  said  unto  them :  ' '  O  generation  of  vipers, 
who  hath  warned  you  to  flee  from  the  wrath 
to  come  ?  Bring  forth  therefore  fruits  meet 
for  repentance."  (Matt.  Ill  7-8)  Yet,  in 
spite  of  his  masterfulness,  very  humble  in  his 
heart  was  John.  "When  the  Jews  sent 
priests  and  Levites  from  Jerusalem  to  ask 
him,  Who  art  thou  ?  he  confessed  and  denied 
not,  but  confessed,  I  am  not  the  Christ.  And 
they  asked  him,  What  then  ?  Art  thou  Elias  ? 
and  he  saith,  I  am  not.  Art  thou  that 
prophet?  and  he  answered,  No."  (John  I 
19-21 )  They  asked  him  further, ' '  Why  bap- 
tizest  thou  then,  if  thou  are  not  Christ, 
neither  Elijah,  nor  a  prophet?"  And  then 
John  answered :  "I  indeed  baptize  you  with 
water  unto  repentance,  but  he  that  cometh  af- 
ter me  is  mightier  than  I,  whose  shoes  I  am 


78  THE  LIGHT  OF  MEN 

not  worthy  to  bear :  he  shall  baptize  you  with 
the  Holy  Ghost  and  with  fire."  (Matt.  Ill 
11)  By  fire,  John  meant  Spiritual  fire ;  that 
supreme  and  vital  essence  in  which  all  things 
manifest  are  vested  and  held. 

And  then  there  came  a  memorable  morn- 
ing when,  slipping  unobtrusively  through  the 
throngs  that  crowded  the  muddy  banks  of 
Jordan,  a  beautiful  young  man 4  in  the  very 
flower  of  manhood — a  strong,  serene,  be- 
nignant figure  —  presented  himself  before 
the  prophet.  His  face  was  like  the  morning, 
and  from  his  presence  there  radiated  power 
blended  with  the  most  translucent  purity. 
And  John,  with  swift  spiritual  recognition,5 
cried  out:  — 

"I  have  need  to  be  baptized  of  thee,  and 
comest  thou  to  me?" 

To  which  the  beautiful  young  man  made 
answer, 

"Suffer  it  to  be  so  now,  for  thus  it  be- 
cometh  us  to  fulfil  all  righteousness.  Then 
he  suffered  him.  And  Jesus  when  he  was 
baptized  went  up  straightway  out  of  the 
water :  and  lo !  the  heavens  were  opened  un- 


JESUS  OF  NAZARETH  79 

to  him,  and  he  saw  the  Spirit  of  God  de- 
scending like  a  dove,  and  lighting  upon  him. 
And  lo  !  a  voice  from  heaven,  saying  :  — 
This  is  my  beloved  son!"     (Matt.  Ill  14- 

17) 


Previous  to  his  appearance  upon  the  banks 
of  the  Jordan  we  know  almost  nothing  of 
Jesus.  The  story  of  the  Virgin  birth  we 
have  wholly  to  discard,  not  indeed  because 
of  its  inherent  impossibility  —  for  "with 
God  all  things  are  possible"  —  but  because 
the  same  legend  appears  in  other,  much  older 
world-scriptures,  and  is  in  fact  not  the  de- 
piction of  an  historical  event  at  all,  but  the 
symbolism  of  a  cosmic  myth.6  Jesus  was 
born,  like  any  other  incarnating  Ego,  of  a 
human  father  and  mother.  If  he  had  not 
been  so  considered,  why  the  elaborate  gene- 
alogical tables  of  two  of  the  Synoptic  gos- 
pels ?  7  No  doubt  the  vessel  selected  for  this 
glorious  birth  was  a  thrice-purified  one.  No 
doubt  Mary  was  herself  a  rare  and  developed 
soul,  full  of  aspiration  and  inspiration,  a  soul 


80  THE  LIGHT  OF  MEN 

possessing  the  power  of  communion  with  the 
Spiritual  Sources.  None  other  could  have 
seemed  worthy.  No  doubt  too  that  in  trance 
or  dreams  she  was  made  conscious  of  the  high 
destiny  attending  her  coming  motherhood. 
We  can  imagine  her  brooding  in  a  conse- 
crated, almost  fearful  joy  over  the  approach- 
ing event,  breathing  tender  prayers  and  wait- 
ing in  rapt  surrender  till  the  perfect  moment 
should  arrive.  And  then  in  a  stable,  amid 
the  meanest  surroundings,  the  divine  child 
was  born  to  her.  This,  to  every  true  woman 
the  most  sanctified  of  experiences,  must  have 
been  to  this  pure  young  girl  an  exalted  mo- 
ment. There  exists  not  in  literature  a  more 
exquisitely  beautiful  and  poetic  passage  than 
the  story  of  the  Nativity  as  it  is  given  in  the 
gospel  of  Luke.  Its  absolute  circumstantial 
authenticity  matters  little ;  we  may  take  the 
fervent  mystic  spirit  of  it  to  our  hearts. 

The  advent,  incarnate  in  the  flesh,  of  an 
Avatar  is  so  momentous,  so  stupendous  an 
event  that  the  vortices  of  Nature  are  shaken 
to  their  very  depths.  Things  which  we  are 
wont  to  call  supernatural — because  we  are 


JESUS  OF  NAZARETH  81 

not  yet  sufficiently  evolved  to  understand 
them  and  so  to  find  them  natural — are  of 
inevitable  and  prescient  occurrence.  Sights 
and  sounds,  wonderful  and  inspiring,  com- 
pel the  inward  senses.  There  are  strange 
and  vital  forces  quickening  in  the  unseen, 
taking  form  and  shape  according  to  the 
sensitiveness  of  the  percipients.  Indeed  the 
glory  of  the  Lord  is  always  shining  round 
about  us,  but  we  are  too  hide-bound  with  pre- 
judice, too  preoccupied  with  material  aims 
and  concepts  to  perceive  it.  It  is  only  when 
the  soul  is  absolutely  retired  into  itself,  or 
when,  as  in  the  scene  we  are  now  consider- 
ing, a  special  fulness  and  pressure  are  upon 
it,  that  a  transient  and  imperfect  vision 
flashes  upon  the  consciousness  and  reveals 
possibilities  still  beyond  our  ken. 

Simple  peoples,  especially  in  the  orient, 
are  very  much  closer  to  the  dim  and  vast 
Unseen  than  we  more  strenuous  and  ma- 
terialistic denizens  of  the  Occident.  Their 
psychic,  or  subtle,  senses  are  nearer  the  sur- 
face. The  veil  which  separates  the  planes  of 
consciousness  is  very  thin  —  easily  rent. 


82  THE  LIGHT  OF  MEN 

Night  and  darkness  conducing,  as  they  ever 
do,  to  the  mystic  mood,  it  is  well  believable 
that  a  company  of  childlike  souls — "shep- 
herds abiding  in  the  fields,  keeping  watch 
over  their  flocks  by  night" — should  become 
aware  of  potential  Presences,  "  multitudes 
of  the  heavenly  host,"  whose  radiant  and 
communicable  joy  their  receptive  natures 
would  translate  into  concrete  terms  of  exalt- 
ed imagery. 

"  And  lo !  the  angel  of  the  Lord  came  upon 
them,  and  the  glory  of  the  Lord  shone  round 
about  them,  and  they  were  sore  afraid.  And 
the  angel  said  unto  them :  Fear  not ;  for  be- 
hold I  bring  you  good  tidings  of  great  joy 
which  shall  be  to  all  people."  (Luke  II  9.) 
"And  suddenly  there  was  with  the  angel  a 
multitude  of  the  heavenly  host,  praising  God, 
and  saying:  Glory  to  God  in  the  highest, 
and  on  earth  peace,  goodwill  toward  men!" 
(Luke  II 13-14.) 

Was  there  ever  penned  a  sublimer  or  more 
ethereal  paean? 

And  of  the  Magi  and  the  star  in  the  east — 
what? 


JESUS  OF  NAZARETH  83 

These  too  are  facts,  though  not  circum- 
stantially as  handed  down  to  us.  All  earnest 
students  of  the  esoteric  side  of  comparative 
religion  are  aware  that,  since  the  world  of 
men  existed,  there  have  always  lived  here 
and  there  certain  small  groups  of  illumined 
men.  Different  names  are  given  to  them  in 
different  races  and  climes.  These  particular 
men  we  know  as  Magi  (from  the  Latin 
magus) — great;  literally  great  souls. 

Far  from  the  distracting  tumult  and  stress 
of  sensuous  life,  recluse  and  apart,  these 
brotherhoods  have  dwelt;  receiving  and  in- 
structing such  as  care  enough  to  acquire  the 
higher  spiritual  wisdom  to  seek  them  out; 
sending  forth,  to  a  world  which  does  not 
know  nor  heed,  mighty  vibrations  of  life  and 
love;  and  ever  fanning  that  mystic  spark 
which,  without  this  care,  might  easily  perish 
from  among  us. 

This  particular  brotherhood  dwelt  in  Per- 
sia ;  and  although  it  had  been  revealed  to  all 
brotherhoods  that,  when  certain  stars  should 
be  in  conjunction,8  the  time  would  be  ripe  for 
the  birth  of  an  Avatar,  these  seem  to  have 


84  THE  LIGHT  OF  MEN 

been  the  only  ones  who  set  out  to  behold  him 
in  the  flesh.  When  the  conjunction  took 
place,  the  Magi  knew  that  the  Avatar  had 
been  born;  and  by  its  taking  place  in  the 
zodiacal  sign  of  Pisces,  they  knew  that  he 
had  been  born  in  Judaea  —  Pisces  being  the 
astrological  sign  of  Judaea.  They  therefore 
set  out  upon  their  long  journey,  coming  into 
the  presence  of  the  holy  child,  not,  as  the 
record  goes,  at  the  period  of  his  birth,  but 
the  best  part  of  a  year  later. 

The  birth  of  any  soul  into  the  world  of 
matter  must  be  regarded  in  the  nature  of  a 
descent.  The  assumption  by  any  Ego  of 
carnal  flesh  is,  in  essence,  an  assumption  of 
limitations.  From  its  discarnate  freedom 
the  spirit  winds  itself  in  webs  of  the  mate- 
rial, the  illusory  nature  of  which  it  becomes 
its  laborious  business  to  discover,  and,  as  far 
as  possible,  its  achievement  to  break.  So 
does  the  Ego  gather  in  the  Objective  experi- 
ence by  which  to  climb  in  the  Subjective. 
To  use  a  homely  simile,  we  may  imagine  an 
electric  lamp  bound  about  with  webs,  of  a 
denser  or  lighter  texture  as  may  be,  but 


JESUS  OF  NAZABETH  85 

which  must  inevitably  darken  and  cloud  the 
radiance  of  the  light  within.  Yet,  in  its  ef- 
forts to  shine  forth,  the  heat  of  it  shall  more 
and  more  consume  and  disperse  its  bandages. 
There  shall  be  weaker  places  too  in  them, 
which,  yielding  to  the  inner  pressure,  shall 
at  moments  be  suddenly  rent  in  twain.  At 
such  moments  we  are  wont  to  say  "scales  fall 
from  the  eyes." 

The  new-born  infant,  spending  three 
fourths  of  its  time  in  sleep,  is  not  yet  fully 
en-souled  —  is  in  fact  spending  that  part  of 
its  little  life  in  the  realm  or  plane  of  the  Sub- 
jective from  which  it  has  come,  and  its  few 
waking  hours  in  a  wondering  effort  to  adapt 
itself  to  its  new  environment  of  the  Objec- 
tive. As  it  grows,  the  balance  will  dip  the 
other  way;  so  much  more  time  in  the  Ob- 
jective, so  much  less  in  the  Subjective,  until 
the  consciousness  of  the  latter  dwindles  to 
dreams  or  fades.  Comes  next  the  unfolding 
of  self -consciousness,  the  correlating  of  the 
self  with  the  external ;  then,  as  maturity  ad- 
vances more  and  more,  the  effort  of  the  ris- 
ing tide  of  spirit  within  to  penetrate,  sub- 


86  THE  LIGHT  OP  MEN 

vert,  transcend  those  enfolding  webs.  Some- 
times in  the  thin  places  there  is  a  sudden 
breaking  away,  a  letting  out  of  the  light  of 
true  consciousness.  This  we  characterise  as 
illumination,  and  the  Ego  realises  that  in 
these  flashes  it  is  but  taking  possession  of  its 
own.  Thus  does  the  spirit  of  man  find  itself. 

It  is  in  the  nature  of  things  that  the  birth 
of  a  baby  Avatar  should  not  differ  from  that 
of  the  ordinary  child  in  kind,  but  only  in  de- 
gree. The  assumption  of  humanity  must 
mean,  in  a  sense,  the  assumption  of  the  limi- 
tations of  humanity.  How  else  could  he  be 
one  with  man  as  well  as  one  with  God  ?  But 
oh !  the  webs  which  enfold  this  radiant  spirit 
are  of  a  far  finer  and  more  tenuous  charac- 
ter, even  as  the  light  within  is  of  a  far  more 
powerful  effulgence  than  belongs  to  ordi- 
nary humanity ! 

Further  than  the  bald  fact  that  he  was  tak- 
en to  Egypt  and  brought  back  again,  we  are 
not  told  anything  of  the  infancy  and  the 
early  childhood  of  Jesus;  but  we  know  that 
very  lovely,  very  joyous,  very  winsome  must 
have  been  this  gracious  little  child;  full  of 


JESUS  OF  NAZARETH  87 

an  entirely  human  life  and  sportiveness ;  full 
also  of  a  precocious  intelligence  and  an  in- 
definable radiating  magnetism  which  all 
about  him  could  feel,  yet  which  none  might 
fathom.  Ever  and  anon  he  would  be  over- 
taken with  dreamy  hours,  when  the  lambent 
eyes  would  grow  veiled  and  absent,  and  the 
spirit  would  seem  like  a  fled  bird.  We 
should  know  too  that  as  he  grew  the  boy 
would  quickly  assimilate  all  that  there  might 
be  in  his  outward  world  to  learn.  Every- 
thing being  already  potential  in  the  expand- 
ing intelligence,  it  would  require  but  a  touch 
to  fling  open  the  doors  to  the  treasure  house 
within.  We  can  imagine  with  what  un- 
speakable joy  and  pride  his  young  mother 
watched  this  unfolding;  with  what  tender- 
ness she  cherished  and  taught  her  little  son. 
Deep  in  her  heart  too  was  a  certain  wonder 
and  an  ever-growing  awe  in  the  presence  of 
something  about  him  which  she  could  not 
fully  understand. 

One  vivid  glimpse  we  get  of  the  boy  Jesus 
in  mid-growth.  He  was  twelve  years  of  age, 
and  must  already  have  been  rarely  mature 


88  THE  LIGHT  OF  MEN 

for  his  years.  We  are  told  that  "Jesus  in- 
creased in  wisdom  and  stature,  and  in  favour 
with  God  and  man,"  (Luke  II  52)  and  we 
can  visualise  the  strong,  sweet,  noble,  ration- 
al boy  that  he  must  have  been ;  easily  a  leader 
among  his  young  companions  yet  indefinably 
different  from  them.  The  constant  expan- 
sion of  the  inner  perceptions  was  setting  him 
more  and  more  consciously  apart  from  them. 
He  was  increasingly  aware  of  that  inner 
light,  which,  springing  from  the  depths  of 
his  own  being,  was  ever  pressing  out,  and 
riving  the  cloudy  films  of  the  external,  ma- 
terial senses.  Wonderful  dreams  and  trances 
the  boy  must  have  had  also ;  visions  in  which 
many  things  not  yet  clear  to  the  intellect 
limned  themselves  forth  in  a  radiance  which 
he  could  perceive  but  not  yet  correlate.  It 
is  more  than  likely  also  that  he  learned 
truths  from  learned  travellers  in  those  car- 
avans which  were  continually  passing  that 
way  from  the  far  orient  to  Damascus,  and 
that,  with  the  aroma  of  sandalwood,  precious 
spices,  and  costly  weaves,  there  were  borne  to 


JESUS  OF  NAZARETH  89 

him  hints  of  mighty  knowledges  to  be  gained 
in  the  far  places  of  the  world. 

And  then  came  that  momentous  journey 
with  his  parents  to  the  feast  of  the  Passover 
at  Jerusalem,  he  being  of  age  now  to  be  ad- 
mitted to  it.  To  one  nurtured  amid  the 
peaceful  pastoral  life  of  Galilee,  what  an 
excitement  this  long  journey  with  the  large 
body  of  neighbour  pilgrims  to  this  solemn 
Jewish  festival!  And  then  what  a  pano- 
rama the  great  metropolis  opened  to  his  boy- 
ish eyes!  It  was  indeed  a  very  microcosm 
of  the  whole  human  world,  an  epitome  of  its 
loves,  its  hates,  its  pageants,  its  vainglory, 
its  oppressions,  its  miseries,  its  anguish,  its 
despairs!  Mighty  contrasts  indeed  of  hu- 
man society!  and  it  is  not  improbable  that 
now  for  the  first  time  there  penetrated  to  his 
spirit  the  travailing  cry  of  the  human  race ; 
the  cry  of  the  soul  for  its  lost  heritage ;  the 
cry  which  may  not  be  assuaged  except  by 
Spirit  itself.  In  the  historic  high  places  of 
worship  —  sanctuaries  which  tradition  made 
of  the  holiest — he  would  witness  an  empty 


90  THE  LIGHT  OF  MEN 

and  ostentatious  ceremonial,  accompanied 
by  hideous  blood-sacrifices; — a  very  mock- 
ery of  worship.  We  can  imagine  the  thrill, 
the  excitement,  the  shock  all  these  experi- 
ences would  bring  to  the  high  nature,  until 
now  peacefully  shielded  from  them  among 
his  native  hills. 

But  there  is  another  side  to  the  picture. 
The  life  of  the  spirit  was  not  wholly  dead  in 
the  great  Jewish  city.  Their  Scriptures 
shrouded  deep  and  mystic  secrets ;  and  in  the 
more  remote  courts  and  chambers  of  the 
temple  learned  doctors  made  them  their  life 
study,  expounding  orally  to  those  who  came 
to  them  capable  of  receiving  the  treasures 
thereof.  In  among  the  company  of  these  ven- 
erable men  wandered  the  boy  Jesus  —  spirit- 
led,  doubtless  —  and  here  he  remained  fas- 
cinated, illumined  by  a  touch  which  suddenly 
opened  the  doors  to  inward  chambers  of  his 
understanding,  and  let  loose  a  host  of 
thoughts,  ideas,  inspirations,  of  which  he  had 
before  been  hardly  conscious. 

The  spectacular  festival  week  of  the  Pass- 
over being  ended,  the  contingents  of  guests 


JESUS  OF  NAZAEETH  91 

from  Nazareth  and  many  other  places  gath- 
ered themselves  together  and  took  their  mul- 
titudinous, and  we  may  presume,  confused 
departure.  For  a  whole  day  Mary  and 
Joseph  journeyed  before  they  missed  their 
son,  having  supposed  him  to  be  with  friends 
in  some  other  part  of  the  caravan.  In  anx- 
ious panic  they  retraced  their  steps  to  the 
crowded  city.  For  three  days  the  agonised 
search  went  on ;  then  they  came  upon  the  lost 
boy. 

"And  it  came  to  pass  that,  after  three 
days,  they  found  him  in  the  temple,  sitting  in 
the  midst  of  the  doctors,  both  hearing  them 
and  asking  them  questions.  And  all  that 
heard  him  were  astonished  at  his  under- 
standing and  answers."  (Luke  III  46) 

A  wonderful  spectacle  truly !  Among  the 
great  teachers  of  the  Law  and  Kabalah  a 
mere  lad  sitting  —  a  lad  absorbed,  rapt,  to 
himself  not  lost  but  found  —  eternally  found 
—  and  pouring  forth  question  and  comment 
whose  penetration  and  soaring  scope  stag- 
gered his  elders. 

"And  his  mother  said  unto  him,  Son,  why 


92  THE  LIGHT  OF  MEN 

hast  thou  thus  dealt  with  us?  Behold  thy 
father  and  I  have  sought  thee  sorrowing. ' ' 

To  which  the  youthful  mystic  made  an- 
swer :  * '  How  is  it  that  ye  sought  me  ?  Wist 
ye  not  that  I  must  be  about  my  Father's 
business  ? 

And  they  understood  not  the  saying  which 
he  spake  unto  them,  but  his  mother  kept  all 
these  sayings  in  her  heart."  (Luke  II  48- 
52) 

From  this  period  until  the  moment  when 
we  find  him  with  John  upon  the  muddy 
banks  of  the  Jordan  —  some  eighteen  years 
—  the  canonical  history  of  Jesus  is  a  blank. 

It  has  been  usual  to  assume  that  because 
his  father  Joseph  was  a  carpenter  Jesus  also 
was  bred  to  this  trade ;  indeed  we  not  unf  re- 
quently  hear  him  spoken  of  as  "the  Divine 
Carpenter,"  but  there  is  absolutely  not  a 
shred  of  evidence  to  bear  out  this  assump- 
tion. Unless  as  a  child  he  played  at  carpen- 
tering in  his  father's  workshop,  Jesus  never 
did  use  tools.  His  work  was  other.  The 
writers  of  the  gospels  are  silent  as  to  this 
part  of  Jesus'  life  because  they  did  not  know 


JESUS  OF  NAZAKETH  93 

anything  about  it.  They  did  not  know  any- 
thing about  it  because  he  was  not  at  home. 
Had  he  been,  some  record  of  this,  the  most 
crucial  period  of  his  development,  would  in- 
evitably have  come  down  to  us.  If  we  need- 
ed corroboration  of  this,  it  would  lie  in  the 
fact  that,  when  at  the  opening  of  his  ministry 
he  began  to  teach  in  his  native  regions  of 
Galilee,  he  appears  not  to  have  been  known 
to  the  neighbour  folk,  but  to  have  begun 
work  as  a  comparative  stranger. 

The  gospel  record  is  a  blank,  but  there  ex- 
ist ancient  esoteric  traditions  which  furnish 
some  missing  links.  Many  modern  author- 
ities have  it  that  Jesus  was  sent  to  be  edu- 
cated by  the  Essenes,  but  this  is  only  a  part 
of  the  truth.  After  the  illuminating  experi- 
ences at  Jerusalem,  either  because  of  his 
mother's  conviction  that  he  was  divinely 
called,  or  perhaps  because  of  some  more 
powerful  pressure,  Jesus  was  sent  to  the 
Monastery  of  the  Essenes  at  Engaddi  near 
the  Dead  Sea.  He  entered  this  community 
as  a  neophite,  but,  quickly  assimilating  all 
the  truths  unfolded  to  him,  he  rose  so  rapidly 


94  THE  LIGHT  OF  MEN 

through  the  grades  of  initiation  that  he  soon 
became  a  Master  there.  It  has  been,  and 
constantly  is,  asserted  by  theologians  that 
Jesus  was  an  uneducated  man,  but  the  fore- 
going confutes  this.  The  fact  is  that  Jesus 
knew  everything.  To  the  sum  of  human 
knowledge  he  added  superhuman  knowledge, 
which  cannot  be  summed  up  nor  estimated, 
and  the  inward  light  irradiated  the  outward. 
After  sojourning  some  years  among  the  Es- 
senes,  ever  growing  in  grace  and  wisdom,  the 
young  Master  passed  on  eastward  to  other, 
more  profound,  centres  of  esoteric  learning ; 
and  wherever  he  went  the  taught  quickly  be- 
came the  teacher.  Those  sages  to  whom  he 
went  could  impart  the  knowledge  of  hidden 
mysteries  acquired  through  long  years  of  de- 
voted study,  of  meditation,  of  high  commun- 
ings;  he  could  impart  the  pure  stream  of 
Life,  drawn  directly  from  eternal  sources. 
Life  was  an  open  book  to  him.  Knowledge, 
wisdom,  power  were  his.  He  held  the  secrets 
of  creation,  preservation,  dissolution,  in  the 
hollow  of  his  hand.  Yet  when,  prompted  by 
an  inward  leading,  he  turned  from  wandering 


JESUS  OF  NAZARETH  95 

in  far  lands  to  inaugurate  his  ministry  in  his 
own  Palestine,  Jesus,  the  man,  had  not  whol- 
ly found  himself  as  Jesus,  the  Christ.  This 
was  reserved  for  the  mystical  experience 
which  followed  upon  his  baptism  at  the 
hands  of  John. 

What  was  the  nature  of  this  chrism? 

Perhaps  we  are  not  competent  to  form  an 
adequate  concept  of  it,  yet  one  may  hazard  a 
reverent  conjecture.  It  would  seem  that  in 
the  burning  dazzle  of  that  supreme  moment 
the  last  impeding  thread  of  the  web  was  dis- 
solved, and  spirit  met  Spirit  with  a  sense  of 
union  and  a  joy  scarcely  conceivable  to  us 
who  have  not  experienced  it.  The  heavens 
literally  were  opened.  The  down-rushing 
glory  and  the  up-rushing  glory  intermingled, 
were  fused  and  at  one — and  knew  them- 
selves as  one.  The  human  knew  itself  utter- 
ly divine. 

After  this  great  spiritual  shock,  this  il- 
lumination as  to  his  real  nature,  it  was  inev- 
itable that  the  soul  should  seek  remotest  sol- 
itude —  should  be  driven  far  from  the  vibra- 
tions, the  jar  and  fret  of  the  discordant 


96  THE  LIGHT  OP  MEN 

world  —  to  polarise  itself  with  Eternal  Real- 
ity;  and  we  read,  "Then  was  Jesus  led  up  of 
the  Spirit  into  the  wilderness."  (Matt  IV-1) 

There  are  plenty  of  wildernesses  in  Ju- 
daea ;  grim  mountain  fastnesses  and  desolate 
uplands.  In  some  lofty  retreat  above  the 
haunts  of  men,  above  even  vegetation  per- 
haps, with  nothing  over  him  but  illimitable 
space ;  the  unveiled,  parching  sun  by  day,  the 
pavilion  of  the  stars  by  night;  face  to  face 
with  his  own  spirit,  Jesus  spent  forty  days 
in  the  mystic  conflict  known  to  us  as  "being 
tempted  of  the  devil."  These  forty  days 
were  probably  passed  largely  in  trance,  or  in 
a  superconscious  state. 

That  this  "temptation"  was  not  of  a  ma- 
terial order,  but  was  a  test  subjective,  fought 
out  in  the  realm  of  the  Supraliminal,  only 
the  occultist  may  appreciate — and  he  not 
fully.  It  is  not  to  be  believed  that  a  Lord  of 
Light  should  be  tempted  in  the  same  manner 
as  we,  poorer  humanity,  are  tempted.  There 
could  be  no  mortal  weakness  of  the  sort 
which  we  know ;  but  that,  between  the  limited 
personal  human  element  and  the  unlimited 


JESUS  OF  NAZARETH  97 

divine  Spirit — perhaps  indeed,  because  of 
that  very  transcendence  —  a  certain  terrible 
struggle  passed  is  clear.  Dreams  of  stupen- 
dous dominion  swept  over  him.  He  was  the 
Messiah.  Consciousness  of  limitless  power 
was  his.  He  might  manifest  himself  as  the 
expected  temporal  deliverer  of  "the  chosen 
people,"  lift  them  out  of  their  bonds  of  servi- 
tude, and,  kindling  by  virtue  of  that  power 
a  mighty  social  conflagration,  lead  them 
through  it  triumphantly  to  a  new  empire  — 
an  empire  as  wise  as  it  should  be  strong.  He 
could  consolidate  a  civilisation  which  should 
be  far-reaching  in  its  influences,  a  nobler  em- 
pire than  the  world  had  ever  seen.  But  then 
that  rending,  passionate  cry  of  the  human 
race  —  that  cry  which  was  engraved  upon  his 
heart  ?  But  then  that  mystic  message  of  lib- 
eration which  he  bore,  not  to  one  people,  but 
to  all  peoples?  His  message  —  the  message 
he  had  incarnated  to  deliver  —  was  one  of 
Spiritual  dominion,  the  supreme  relation  be- 
tween God  and  man,  not  one  of  even  the 
noblest  worldly  state.  No,  it  could  not  be. 
Let  the  dream  pass. 


98  THE  LIGHT  OF  MEN 

Then  unrolled  before  him  the  pageant  of 
his  brief  earthly  career ;  the  excitement,  the 
swift  popularity,  the  joy  and  the  acclama- 
tions of  the  multitude;  then  the  waning  of 
that  popularity  under  the  spell  of  sacerdotal 
jealousy  and  hatred ;  the  labour,  the  misun- 
derstanding, the  seeming  failure;  the  final 
ignominy  and  agony;  all  was  reviewed  and 
promptly  and  lovingly  accepted.  This  is  but 
a  meagre  expression  of  the  sacrificial  nature 
of  such  decision,  for  in  accepting  his  mission 
to  man,  Jesus,  the  Christ,  identified  himself 
with  the  travail  of  humanity. for  all  time  — 
for  all  time,  that  is,  until  all  men  should  be 
" through  Christ  made  free." 

The  conflict  over,  ineffable  peace  and  joy 
enfolded  him.  A  regnant  poise  and  purpose 
which  could  never  be  shaken  possessed  him. 
Ethereal  harmonies  swept  his  spirit.  "  An- 
gels came  and  ministered  unto  him ;"  for  the 
realm  of  the  Limitless  is  full  of  incorporeal 
presences  ready  to  strengthen  and  cherish 
every  soul  who  will  in  trust  absolutely  sur- 
render to  them.9 

Jesus  was  then  ready  to  inaugurate  his 


JESUS  OF  NAZARETH  99 

ministry  in  his  native  regions  round  about 
the  Sea  of  Galilee. 

"And  Jesus  returned  in  the  power  of  the 
Spirit  into  Galilee:  and  there  went  out  a 
fame  of  him  through  all  the  region  round 
about."  (Luke  IV  14) 

His  first  move  was  to  gather  about  him  a 
small  group  of  chosen  men  as  a  nucleus  for 
his  new  propaganda;  and  it  is  significant 
that  these  twelve  men  were  selected  exclu- 
sively from  the  common  people.  Some  were 
fishermen,  some  husbandmen,  others  arti- 
sans, one  was  the  keeper  of  a  public  house. 
They  were  all  simple  and  unlearned  men, 
doubtless  of  high  character ;  their  very  sim- 
plicity, childlike  receptivity,  and  absence  of 
dogmatic  prejudices  rendering  them  suitable 
vehicles  into  which  he  might  pour  the  in- 
spiration of  his  divine  genius.  Jesus  did 
not  seek  out  the  learned  and  high-caste  in  the 
land.  He  knew  that  the  Sacerdotal  party 
were  filled  with  an  inordinate  sense  of  their 
own  importance  rather  than  the  importance 
of  their  responsibilities  to  others.  He  knew 
he  could  not  touch  those  hide-bound  in  preju- 


100          THE  LIGHT  OF  MEN 

dice  and  self-esteem,  and  he  turned  him  to 
the  multitude,  the  " common  people,"  who 
" heard  him  gladly." 

Companioned  by  these  first  disciples,  but 
soon  followed  by  an  ever-increasing  throng 
of  wondering  folk,  drawn  to  him  to  listen  to 
those  words  so  charged  with  spiritual  power 
or  to  be  healed  of  their  bodily  infirmities,  the 
Master  "went  about  doing  good." 

"And  Jesus  went  about  all  Galilee,  teach- 
ing in  their  synagogues,  and  preaching  the 
gospel  of  the  kingdom,  and  healing  all  man- 
ner of  disease  among  the  people.  And  his 
fame  went  throughout  all  Syria;  and  they 
brought  unto  him  all  sick  people  that  were 
taken  with  divers  diseases  and  torments,  and 
those  which  were  possessed  with  devils,  and 
those  which  were  lunatic,  and  those  that  had 
the  palsy,  and  he  healed  them.  And  there 
followed  him  great  multitudes  of  people 
from  Galilee,  and  Decapolis,  and  Jerusalem, 
and  Judaea  and  from  beyond  Jordan." 
(Matt.  IV  23-25) 

There  is  nothing  more  conspicuous  or  ap- 
pealing to  us  than  the  essential  humanness 


JESUS  OF  NAZARETH         101 

of  Jesus.  He  was  no  philosopher  in  the 
Agora ;  no  recluse  in  the  desert.  He  was  not 
an  ascetic  like  John.  His  life  was  a  social 
life.  He  lived  a  man  among  men,  sharing 
their  every-day  experiences,  and  infusing  in- 
to them  a  new  inspiration.  He  himself  has 
replied  to  his  critics : 

"Whereunto  shall  I  liken  this  generation? 
It  is  like  unto  children  sitting  in  the  markets 
and  calling  unto  their  fellows  and  saying,  We 
have  piped  unto  you  and  ye  have  not  danced. 
We  have  mourned  unto  you  and  ye  have  not 
lamented ;  for  John  came  neither  eating  nor 
drinking,  and  ye  say,  He  hath  a  devil.  The 
Son  of  man  came  eating  and  drinking,  and 
ye  say,  Behold  a  gluttonous  man  and  a  wine 
bibber."  (Matt.  XI  16-19) 

The  relations  of  Jesus  to  his  fellow-men 
were  characterised  by  a  spirit  of  sweet  and 
intimate  comradeship.  He  as  it  were  em- 
braced life  with  both  arms.  For  all  suffer- 
ing creatures  he  entertained  unbounded  com- 
passion ;  for  all  souls  travailing  in  darkness, 
an  unbounded  love.  These  qualities — this 
poignant  tenderness  and  sympathy  —  were 


102  THE  LIGHT  OF  MEN 

the  touchstones  by  which  he  opened  all 
hearts.  Almost  constantly  he  was  surround- 
ed by  throngs  of  people  into  whose  simple 
joys  he  entered  and  whose  woes  he  alleviated. 
For  all  he  had  a  gracious  word ;  to  everyone 
he  turned  a  sympathetic  ear.  Men  reposed 
in  him  a  confidence,  an  entire  faith  and  trust, 
born  of  the  inspiration  of  his  perfect  man- 
hood. Little  children  came  naturally  and 
joyfully  to  him,  and  he  gathered  them  in  his 
arms  and  blessed  them.  Upon  one  occasion 
when  the  children  seemed  to  crowd  too  close 
about  him,  and  their  elders  would  have 
pushed  them  back,  he  rebuked  them,  saying : 

"Suffer  little  children  to  come  unto  me, 
and  forbid  them  not,  for  of  such  is  the  king- 
dom of  heaven."  (Matt.  XIX  14) 

And  again : 

"Take  heed  that  ye  despise  not  one  of 
these  little  ones,  for  I  say  unto  you  that  in 
heaven  their  angels  do  always  behold  the 
face  of  my  Father  which  is  in  heaven." 
(Matt.  XVIII 10)  His  rare  sensibility  ren- 
dered him  peculiarly  sympathetic  with,  and 


JESUS  OF  NAZARETH         103 

appreciative  of,  women.  Numbers  of  wo- 
men followed  him  from  place  to  place,  and, 
to  his  gracious  acceptance,  rendered  him  lov- 
ing service.  In  one  place  we  read  recorded 
the  names  of  some  who  "ministered  unto  him 
of  their  substance."  (Luke  VIII  3)  His 
mother  —  the  only  one  of  his  family  who 
knew  his  true  nature  and  who  believed  on 
him  —  seems  to  have  been  constantly  of  his 
company.  The  sisters  of  Lazarus  were  his 
cherished  friends. 

For  frailty  he  had  a  God-like  pity  and  for- 
giveness. Once,  as  he  sat  at  meat  in  a  Phari- 
see ?s  house,  there  came  thither  a  woman  of 
the  street,  a  courtesan,  bearing  a  box  of 
precious  ointment  in  her  hands,  and  stand- 
ing at  his  feet  weeping,  washed  his  feet  with 
her  tears,  dried  them  with  her  hair,  and  last- 
ly anointed  them  with  the  ointment.  The 
Pharisee  wondered  scornfully  that  he  should 
permit  this  contaminating  touch,  but  Jesus 
rebuked  him  through  a  parable,  and,  ad- 
dressing the  woman,  said,  "Her  sins  which 
are  many  are  forgiven,  for  she  loved  much." 


104          THE  LIGHT  OF  MEN 

(Luke  VII  47)  And  it  is  significant  that 
later  it  was  vouchsafed  to  this  same  woman 
to  be  the  first  to  greet  her  risen  Lord. 

At  another  time  they  brought  to  him  a  wo- 
man taken  in  adultery ;  and,  wishing  to  snare 
him,  desired  that  he  should  render  the  judg- 
ment of  the  Law  that  she  be  stoned  to  death. 
Jesus'  reply  was: 

"He  that  is  without  sin  among  you,  let  him 
first  cast  a  stone  at  her." 

Oh  significant  judgment,  worthy  to  be  tak- 
en to  heart  by  every  man  today ! 

"  And  they  which  heard  it,  being  convicted 
by  their  own  conscience,  went  out  one  by  one, 
beginning  at  the  eldest,  even  unto  the  last; 
and  Jesus  was  left  alone,  and  the  woman 
standing  in  the  midst.  When  Jesus  had  lift- 
ed himself  up,  and  saw  none  but  the  woman, 
he  said  unto  her,  Woman,  where  are  those 
thine  accusers?  Hath  no  man  condemned 
thee  ?  She  said,  No  man,  Lord.  And  Jesus 
said  unto  her,  Neither  do  I  condemn  thee: 
go  and  sin  no  more."  (John  VIII  9) 

Very  early  in  his  career  we  find  Jesus 
mingling  familiarly  and  genially  in  the  cele- 


JESUS  OF  NAZARETH         105 

bration  of  a  marriage  feast.  At  another 
time  he  offends  the  Pharisaical  sense  of  pro- 
priety by  dining  with  publicans  and  sinners. 
In  two  instances  we  know  that  his  compas- 
sion for  the  material  needs  of  his  following 
induced  him  to  exercise  his  spiritual  powers 
to  supply  them  with  food.  Now  he  is  preach- 
ing upon  a  mountain  side,  holding  great  mul- 
titudes breathless  in  the  spell  of  an  unimag- 
ined  eloquence.  Again  we  find  him  sitting 
in  a  boat  pushed  a  little  way  from  the  shore, 
that  he  may  command  perspective  to  address 
the  great  numbers  who  flock  to  hear  him. 
Sometimes  he  rests  with  the  twelve  peace- 
fully within  silvery  olive  groves;  at  others 
he  strolls  with  them  through  whispering 
fields  of  bearded  grain.  For  the  most  part 
his  life  was  passed  in  the  open,  but  some- 
times we  find  him  in  the  local  synagogues, 
and  more  than  once  he  entered  the  temple  at 
Jerusalem,  breathing  there  words  of  fiery 
power. 

And  so,  over  the  rugged  hills  of  Palestine, 
among  fertile  lowlands,  through  desert  up- 
lands ;  from  valley  to  valley,  from  village  to 


106          THE  LIGHT  OF  MEN 

village,  from  house  to  house  wandered,  with 
gentle  feet,  the  Master  —  a  beneficent  pres- 
ence; teaching,  healing,  comforting,  inspir- 
ing. And  wherever  he  went  he  preached  the 
new  evangel  —  the  glad  tidings  of  great  joy; 
that  God  is  not  an  austere  deity,  afar  off,  to 
be  placated  with  sacrifice,  but  a  very  Im- 
manent Presence.  Yea,  that  He  is  Unspeak- 
able Love,  and  that  we  have  but  to  reach 
forth  with  the  selfless  trust  of  little  children 
to  find  Him.  That  He  is  the  supreme  and 
tender  Father,  and  that  all  peoples  are  his 
children;  one  family,  one  great  brother- 
hood ;  and  that,  even  as  God  is  Spirit,  so  are 
we  spirit  —  of  Him,  in  Him,  through  Him; 
of  His  substance,  if  we  can  only  rise  to  the 
realisation  of  such  truth  and  claim  our  her- 
itage. 


We  read  how  Jesus  was  wont  often  to 
withdraw  himself  from  all  companions,  and 
retire  into  some  silent,  secluded  spot,  there 
to  spend  the  night  rapt  in  meditation  and 
communion.  He  "went  apart  to  pray,"  are 


JESUS  OF  NAZARETH         107 

the  recorded  words.  In  silence  and  in  soli- 
tude lie  drank  at  the  ineffable  Springs  of 
Being. 

This  withdrawal  of  the  spirit  from  activ- 
ity was  in  a  sense  a  necessity  for  its  renewal 
and  refreshment ;  not  that  the  spiritual  con- 
sciousness could  ever  fail,  but,  upon  the  hu- 
man side,  it  could  suffer  a  certain  laceration. 

Even  so  we,  would  we  preserve  and  nour- 
ish the  Inspiration  at  the  heart  of  us,  must 
withdraw  into  silence  and  solitude  and  com- 
mune alone.  For  it  is  only  in  perfect  in- 
ward calm  that  there  come  high  moments 
when  the  spirit  surrenders  itself  to  the  Mys- 
tery. 

The  inhibition  of  active  thought,  the  clos- 
ing of  the  senses  to  outward  impressions,  is 
corollary  with  the  flinging  open  of  the  doors 
to  the  subjective  world,  permitting  us  to  pass 
into  the  higher  consciousness.  For  con- 
sciousness is  not  sensation  nor  definite 
thought,  but  something  beyond  either;  nor 
does  pure  consciousness  supervene  until  sen- 
sation and  thought  are  stilled. 

Our  ordinarv  life  in  the  world  is  as  if  one 


108          THE  LIGHT  OF  MEN 

should  sit  habitually  in  a  room  upon  one  side 
of  which  there  are  windows  open  to  a  noisy 
city  thoroughfare,  and,  upon  the  other  side, 
a  door  into  an  inner  chamber  wherein  beau- 
tiful music  is  being  played.  We  could  not 
hear  the  music  for  the  uproar.  The  win- 
dows to  the  street  must  first  be  closed.  The 
coarser  vibrations  of  the  material  world, 
with  its  trivial  pursuits  and  sordid  aims,  set 
up  great  barriers  between  the  planes  of  con- 
sciousness, and  shut  out  the  finer  harmonies ; 
and  if  we  do  not  often  withdraw  ourselves 
and  surrender  the  spirit  in  utter  stillness  and 
receptivity,  the  barriers  are  like  to  grow  ever 
more  adamantine,  until  we  cease  to  catch 
even  the  echoes  of  the  music.  For  it  is  not 
in  the  whirlwind  nor  the  tempest,  nor  the 
fire ;  not  in  turmoil  or  excitement,  but  in  the 
still  small  voice  that  God  can  be  heard  speak- 
ing to  us. 

For  him,  the  perfect  one,  there  could  in- 
deed arise  no  barriers,  but  the  uproar  of  the 
world  could  not  fail  to  be  a  more  or  less  dis- 
turbing element.  For  him  too  prayer  did 
not  mean  supplication — the  striving  of  a 


JESUS  OF  NAZARETH         109 

hope  —  as  with  us.  He  had  but  to  put  a 
touch  upon  the  avenues  of  sense  to  find  him- 
self at  once  and  wholly  within  the  inward 
world,  in  that  illimitable  suffusion  of  spirit 
for  which  one  finds  no  name. 

Upon  one  momentous  occasion  when  he 
went  apart  Jesus  took  with  him  his  three 
favorite  companions  that  he  might  make  to 
them  a  revelation  of  his  being. 

"And  after  six  days  Jesus  taketh  Peter, 
James,  and  John,  his  brother,  and  bringeth 
them  up  into  an  high  mountain 10  apart,  and 
was  transfigured  before  them :  And  his  face 
did  shine  as  the  sun,11  and  his  raiment  was 
white  as  the  light.  And  behold  there  ap- 
peared unto  them  Moses  and  Elias  talking 
with  him.  Then  answered  Peter  and  said 
unto  Jesus,  Lord  it  is  good  for  us  to  be  here : 
if  thou  wilt,  let  us  make  here  three  taber- 
nacles, one  for  thee,  one  for  Moses  and  one 
for  Elias.  While  he  yet  spake,  behold  a 
bright  cloud  overshadowed  them,  and  behold 
a  voice  out  of  the  cloud  which  said,  This  is 
my  beloved  son;  hear  ye  him.  And  when  the 
disciples  heard  it,  they  fell  on  their  face  and 


110          THE  LIGHT  OF  MEN 

were  sore  afraid.  And  Jesus  came  and 
touched  them,  and  said,  Arise,  and  be  not 
afraid.  And  when  they  had  lifted  up  their 
eyes  they  saw  no  man  save  Jesus  only." 
(Matt.  XVII  1-8) 

In  these  few  verses  is  recorded,  almost 
baldly,  the  most  profound,  mystical  and  won- 
derful happening  in  the  Master's  life  upon 
earth. 

It  has  been  customary  for  Christian  the- 
ology to  focus  upon  the  crucifixion  as  the 
crux  of  the  history  of  Jesus,  but  does  this 
crux  not  lie  rather  in  the  transfiguration? 
It  is  not  so  much  that  Jesus,  the  man,  died 
for  us  which  unendingly  counts,  as  that 
Jesus,  the  Christ,  lived  for  us;  that  he  as- 
sumed in  his  own  person  the  burden  of  the 
human  race,  and  forever  broke  its  fetters. 
Jesus,  by  living,  opened  anew  for  men  the 
consciousness  of  the  channels  to  the  Infinite 
Source ;  and  in  the  apocalypse  of  the  trans- 
figuration in  his  own  person  he  exemplified 
to  a  chosen  few,  who  might  apprehend  it,  the 
mystery  of  union  with  the  Divine,  not  only 


JESUS  OF  NAZARETH         111 

as  a  possibility  for  himself,  but  as  an  eventu- 
ality for  the  whole  evolving  race. 

It  is  difficult  to  translate  a  stupendous  ab- 
straction into  the  concrete  terms  of  sense,  for 
who  may  adequately  interpret  the  unspeak- 
able? Symbols  fail;  language  is  beggared; 
yet  observe  the  connotation. 

"His  face  did  shine  as  the  sun." 

No  man  has  ever  really  looked  upon  the 
sun  itself.  Science  postulates  the  sun  as  an 
incandescent  body;  but  finally  the  sun  re- 
mains a  mystery.  What  we  behold  and  call 
the  sun  is  but  the  radiation — the  luminous 
envelope  in  which  the  Central  Solar  Core 
shrouds  Itself.  Even  upon  this  envelope  the 
human  eye  may  not  steadily  gaze  without 
searing  itself. 

No  doubt  Jesus  threw  the  disciples  into 
trance,  and  opened  the  eyes  of  their  subtle, 
or  inward,  sense  to  the  Supraliminal ;  re- 
gions flooded  with  the  unearthly  and  inef- 
fable subjective  light.  Worlds  upon  worlds 
of  light ;  circles  upon  circles  of  glory ;  illimit- 
able, scintillating  refulgence;  inconceivable, 


112          THE  LIGHT  OF  MEN 

incommunicable  splendour;  light  —  light  — 
light  everywhere  —  a  very  sublimation  of 
light !  And  in  this  fiery  glory,  this  unimped- 
ed interplay  of  spirit,  the  Master  swept  up, 
suffused,  clothed  with  dazzling  majesty  and 
power;  the  Supreme  Effluence  pouring 
through  his  person ;  shown  forth  as  Light  of 
Light — the  Ever-living  Son  of  the  Ever- 
living  God!  No  wonder  that  the  disciples 
were  dazzled,  blinded,  overwhelmed.  No 
wonder  that,  in  trembling  awe,  they  fell  upon 
their  faces  and  were  sore  afraid.  They  had 
looked  upon  That,  which  (unless  by  supreme 
privilege)  no  man  can  look  upon  and  live.12 
"As  they  came  down  from  the  mountain 
Jesus  charged  them,  saying,  Tell  the  vision 
to  no  man,  until  the  Son  of  Man  be  risen 
again  from  the  dead;"  (Matt.  XVII  9)  but 
it  is  evident  that  the  disciples  were  too 
stunned  by  the  magnitude  of  their  vision  to 
grasp  its  entire  significance.  That  only 
came  later,  when  full  spritual  consciousness 
had  descended  upon  them. 


JESUS  OF  NAZARETH         113 

In  the  hour  of  the  transfiguration  the 
earthly  career  of  the  Master  may  be  said  to 
have  reached  its  zenith.  From  this  time  for- 
ward the  skies  grew  darker  above  him,  the 
inevitable  storm  clouds  gathered,  and  events 
hastened  to  their  tragic  conclusion.  Al- 
ready, by  his  immense  and  swift  popularity, 
the  astounding  cures  which  he  had  made,  and 
the  great  spiritual  hold  which  he  seemed  to 
have  gained  over  the  people,  he  had  incurred 
the  jealousy  and  enmity  of  the  sacerdotal 
party;  but  the  superhuman  phenomenon  of 
the  raising,  after  entombment,  of  the  dead 
Lazarus  pushed  their  excitement  and  ran- 
cour to  the  highest  pitch.  They  feared  for 
their  own  ascendency  before  the  fluent  power 
of  this  dangerous  young  reformer,  which 
seemed  to  be  sweeping  the  land  like  a  tidal 
wave.  Yet  for  a  long  time  they  did  not  see 
their  way  to  make  headway  against  him. 

Jesus  also  on  his  part  began  to  change  his 
methods.  He  realised  that  his  time  was 
short,  and  that  he  must  concentrate  upon 
those  things  which  he  desired  most  to  unfold. 
Therefore  he  abstained  somewhat  from  the 


114          THE  LIGHT  OF  MEN 

phenomena  which  had  occupied  so  large  a 
part  of  his  efforts,  and  devoted  himself  more 
exclusively  to  inculcating  those  principles  of 
life  which,  ultimately,  it  was  his  mission  to 
establish.  Also  he  declared  himself — his 
real  person — not  only  to  the  immediate  dis- 
ciples but  to  the  world  at  large,  that  they 
who  had  ears  to  hear  might  recognise  the 
true  meaning  of  his  personality  and  its  rela- 
tion to  the  lives  of  men. 

Already  he  had  questioned  the  twelve: 
"Who  do  men  say  that  I,  the  Son  of  man, 
am?"  and  they  had  answered,  "Some  say 
that  thou  art  John  the  Baptist ;  some,  Elias ; 
and  others,  Jeremias  or  one  of  the  prophets. 
He  said  unto  them:  But  who  say  ye  that 
I  am  ?  And  Simon  Peter  answered  and  said : 
Thou  art  the  Christ,  the  Son  of  the  Living 
God.  And  Jesus  answered  and  said  unto 
him :  Blessed  art  thou,  Simon  Barjona ;  for 
flesh  and  blood  have  not  revealed  it  unto  thee, 
but  my  Father  which  is  in  heaven."  (Matt. 
XVI  13-17) 

Wonderful  words  in  these  days  spake  the 
Master  to  his  followers;  discourses  of  such 


JESUS  OP  NAZARETH         115 

eloquence,  such  sublime  beauty  and  power, 
that  they  move  the  deepest  spiritual  emotion 
in  us.  Even  now,  with  two  milleniums  of 
interpretation  (much  of  it  how  false!)  upon 
them,  we  can  scarcely  extract  the  utter  ker- 
nel of  the  esoteric  meaning,  although  we  are 
beginning  to  do  so  better  than,  since  the  end 
of  the  second  century,  has  generally  been 
done.  That  the  disciples  did  not  at  the  time 
fully  grasp  his  meanings  is  evident.  The 
fact  is  that  they  understood  mentally  more 
than  they  could  assimilate  spiritually.  The 
message  was  too  stupendous  for  them.  They 
were  not  quite  ready.  Therefore  it  is  that 
in  general  he  clothed  his  teaching  in  hyper- 
bole, veiling  himself  in  figures  and  symbols 
which,  to  the  Oriental  mind,  make  the  imme- 
diate appeal.  As  for  instance  when  he 
speaks  of  his  body  as  "this  temple."  In 
such  passages  as  that  in  Matthew  XXIV  29- 
31,  the  cloudy  imagery  is  intended  to  shadow 
forth  the  new  birth,  or  the  coming  of  the 
Christ-consciousness  into  a  human  soul; 
which,  through  conflict  and  tumult,  rises  into 
the  higher  regions  of  pure  spirit.  Again 


116          THE  LIGHT  OF  MEN 

such  a  portentous  passage  as  Matthew  XXV 
31-36  must  be  construed  hyperbolically,  as 
symbolising  the  reaping  of  the  sowing  of 
man's  objective  life.  Jesus  uses  the  simile 
of  sheep  and  goats  to  express  the  higher  and 
lower  qualities  in  man ;  the  latter  eventually 
to  be  outworn,  cast  off,  and  consumed  as 
dross,  the  former  to  enter  (to  "inherit")  the 
kingdom  prepared  for  the  purified  soul. 
Our  Lord  of  Light  knew  well  that  there  is  no 
place  or  condition  of  eternal  torment,  but 
that  all  souls  are  permitted,  through  succes- 
sive incarnations,  eventually  to  purify  and 
to  perfect  themselves.13 

From  the  tranquil  hills  of  Galilee,  where 
he  loved  to  linger,  and  where  a  great  part  of 
his  work  was  done,  with  the  burden  of  his 
destiny  upon  him,  the  Master  began  to  turn 
his  steps  southward — to  fulfil  it.  His  dis- 
ciples sought  to  dissuade  him. 

"Master,  the  Jews  of  late  sought  to  stone 
thee;  and  goest  thou  thither  again?"  (John 
XI  8) 

Jesus  thereupon  unfolds  to  them  the 
courses  of  his  destiny. 


JESUS  OF  NAZARETH         117 

"Behold  we  go  up  to  Jerusalem;  and  the 
Son  of  man  shall  be  betrayed  unto  the  chief 
priests,  and  unto  the  scribes,  and  they  shall 
condemn  him  to  death,  and  shall  deliver  him 
to  the  Gentiles  to  mock,  and  to  scourge,  and 
to  crucify  him:  and  the  third  day  he  shall 
rise  again."  (Matt.  XX  18-19) 

"Then  said  Thomas,  which  is  called  Didy- 
mus,  unto  his  fellow  disciples,  Let  us  go  also, 
that  we  may  die  with  him."  (John  XI  16) 

Jesus,  had  he  so  willed,  could  easily  have 
escaped  his  fate.  It  would  have  been  a  sim- 
ple thing  to  use  his  mighty  thaumaturgic 
power  for  his  own  protection  and  for  the 
confusion  of  his  enemies ;  but  we  remember 
that  during  that  forty  days'  conflict  in  the 
wilderness  he  had  once  and  forever  re- 
nounced the  employment  of  these  for  his  own 
personal  advantage.  Again,  if  he  had  re- 
mained quietly  in  some  corner  of  these  fair 
upper  lands,  or  even  retired  with  his  dis- 
ciples to  some  secluded  spot  over  the  Syrian 
border,  he  could  have  lived  out  a  life  of 
peaceful  spiritual  ministry  without  attract- 
ing overt  attention  or  molestation  from  the 


118          THE  LIGHT  OF  MEN 

authorities;  but  in  this  case  his  message 
could  not  have  received  its  final,  its  conse- 
crating crown. 

"The  Son  of  Man  came  not  to  be  min- 
istered unto  but  to  minister,  and  to  give  his 
life  as  a  ransom  for  many."  (Matt.  XX  28) 

Jesus  knew  that  for  the  full  fruition  of 
the  seed  which  he  had  been  planting  the  law 
must  be  allowed  to  take  its  course.  There- 
fore it  was  that  he  turned  his  steps  once  more 
toward  that  seething  sea  of  hostility  and 
treachery — Jerusalem. 

First  comes  the  thrilling  narrative  of  the 
raising  of  Lazarus  at  Bethany,  and  a  little 
later  the  triumphal  entry  into  Jerusalem; 
for  there  must  surely  be  a  triumphal  entry. 
Must  not  the  Messias  —  the  Deliverer  —  ride 
triumphing  into  the  city  of  his  kingdom? 
Every  Jew  expected  this. 

"And  when  they  were  come  nigh  unto  Je- 
rusalem, and  were  come  to  Bethpage,  unto 
the  Mount  of  Olives,  then  sent  Jesus  two 
disciples,  saying,  Go  into  the  village  over 
against  you,  and  straightway  ye  shall  find  an 
ass  tied  and  a  colt  with  her :  loose  them  and 


JESUS  OF  NAZARETH         119 

bring  them  unto  me.  And  if  any  man  say 
aught  to  you,  ye  shall  say,  The  Lord  hath 
need  of  them ;  and  straightway  he  will  send 
them.  .  .  .  And  the  disciples  went  and 
did  as  Jesus  commanded  them,  and  brought 
the  ass  and  the  colt,  and  put  on  them  their 
clothes,  and  they  set  him  thereon.  And  a 
very  great  multitude  spread  their  garments 
in  the  way,  others  cut  down  branches  from 
the  trees,  and  strewed  them  in  the  way.  And 
the  multitudes  that  went  before,  and  the 
multitudes  that  followed  cried,  saying,  Ho- 
sanna  to  the  son  of  David!  Blessed  is  he 
that  cometh  in  the  name  of  the  Lord !  Ho- 
sanna  in  the  highest!  And  when  he  was 
come  into  Jerusalem,  all  the  city  was  moved, 
saying,  Who  is  this?  And  the  multitude 
said,  this  is  Jesus  the  prophet  of  Nazareth 
of  Galilee."  (Matt.  XXI 1-11)  Oh  sublime 
triumph  of  a  sublime  Deliverer !  —  beautiful, 
touching,  supreme! — the  spiritual  triumph 
of  humility,  surrender,  and  purest  abnega- 
tion! 

Even  now  the  enemies  of  Jesus  did  not  for 
the    time    being    molest    him.     The    cabal 


120          THE  LIGHT  OF  MEN 

against  him  in  the  sacerdotal  party  was  for 
the  moment  arrested  by  the  rekindled  en- 
thusiasm of  the  people.  "When  they  sought 
to  lay  hands  on  him  they  feared  the  people. ' ' 
(Matt.  XXT  46) 

Long  before  this  the  Sanhedrim  had 
decreed  his  downfall,  yet  hesitated  as  to  the 
method.  At  one  time  they  sent  certain 
Pharisees  to  entangle  him  in  his  talk,  but  the 
subtle  simplicity  of  his  answers  put  them  to 
confusion,  so  that  "no  man  was  able  to  an- 
swer him  a  word. "  At  another  time  officers 
were  sent  to  apprehend  him,  but  the  wonder 
of  his  speech  disarmed  them,  so  that  they  re- 
turned empty  handed;  and  told  the  chief 
priests,  "Never  man  spake  like  this  man." 
Now  it  would  seem  as  if  his  enemies  held  him 
in  the  hollow  of  their  hands,  * '  but  no  man  laid 
hold  on  him,  for  his  hour  was  not  yet  come." 
More  than  once  we  read  how,  when  hemmed 
about  by  the  infuriated  mob,  Jesus  escaped 
mysteriously  out  of  their  midst.  (See  John 
VIII  59.  Also  John  X  39) 14  Yet  Jesus  had 
thrown  down  the  gauntlet  to  them  without 


JESUS  OF  NAZARETH         121 

disguise.  From  the  beginning  lie  had  op- 
posed formalism  of  all  sorts,  and  thereby  in- 
curred the  bitter  hatred  of  the  priesthood 
and  chief  Jews.  Many  of  their  religious  ob- 
servances he  had  set  at  naught,  many  of  their 
conventions  he  had  deliberately  broken.  He 
had  transgressed  the  law — the  law  which  in 
their  eyes  was  more  immutable  than  even  the 
Solar  system  itself.  Now  he  adopted  overt 
measures,  and,  boldly  entering  the  temple,  he 
overthrew  the  tables  of  those  who  commer- 
cialised the  holy  places,  while  in  scathing 
diatribes  he  arraigned  the  hypocrisy,  ava- 
rice, and  false  pride  of  the  Scribes  and  Phar- 
isees who  permitted  all  these  scandals  to  be ; 
yet,  "because  his  hour  was  not  yet  come," 
they  did  not  take  him.  It  required  the  con- 
summate treachery  of  one  of  his  trusted 
ones  —  one  of  those  nearest  to  him  to  betray 
him  into  the  hands  of  his  enemies. 

The  last  days  of  the  Master  were  spent  in 
instructions  to  his  disciples ;  exalted  mystical 
expositions  to  the  chosen  few  who  were  pres- 
ently to  be  hated  of  all  men  for  his  sake,  and 


122          THE  LIGHT  OF  MEN 

whose  privilege  it  was  to  carry  on  into  the 
dim  and  troubled  future  the  tradition  of  his 
kingdom. 

And  then  came  the  last  gathering  with  the 
twelve. 

"Now  the  first  day  of  the  feast  of  unleav- 
ened bread  the  disciples  came  to  Jesus,  say- 
ing unto  him,  Where  wilt  thou  that  we  pre- 
pare for  thee  to  eat  the  Passover?  And  he 
said ;  go  into  the  city  to  such  a  man,  and  say 
unto  him,  the  Master  saith,  My  time  is  at 
hand ;  I  will  keep  the  Passover  at  thy  house 
with  my  disciples."  (Matt.  XXVI  17) 

Very  wonderful — very  solemnly,  sacredly 
wonderful  were  those  last  hours  together. 
It  was  as  if  the  Master  strove  to  condense 
into  them  the  final  essence  of  his  spiritual 
message  to  man;  to  render  them  so  rich  in 
substance  that,  in  the  memories  and  con- 
sciousness of  those  who  listened  to  him,  they 
would  ever  shine  like  fixed  stars. 

The  custom  of  sacred  communal  meals  is 
a  very  ancient  one.  Mystics  of  all  time  have 
thus  been  wont  to  share  their  simple  food, 
consecrating  it  by  solemn  formulae.  The 


JESUS  OF  NAZARETH         123 

singing  of  hymns  (cf.  Matt.  XXVI  6-30)  or 
of  sonorous  chaunts  were  a  feature  of  these 
repasts,  and  had  an  occult  significance.  It 
is  not  generally  understood,  but  is  well 
known  to  all  mystic  Initiates,  that  there  exist 
such  things  as  ' '  words  of  power. ' ' 15  That  is, 
that  certain  sounds  —  special  arrangements 
of  vowels  and  consonants  in  conjunction 
with  certain  rhythms  —  have  great  occult 
power;  and  that,  when  chaunted  with  spir- 
itual fervour  and  intensity  by  a  number  of 
voices,  they  will  awaken  in  the  vast  spaces  of 
the  unseen  answering  rhythms  of  far-reach- 
ing potency.  They  stir,  attract,  and  bring 
down16  mighty  spiritual  vibrations,  always 
potential  around  us,  but  not  always  in  activ- 
ity. They  pour  upon  the  celebrants  as  it 
were  a  stream  of  spiritual  effluence  which 
quickens  them  with  inspiration,  and  lifts 
them  out  of  themselves  into  states  of  higher 
consciousness.  This  is  what  Jesus  meant 
when  he  said,  "Where  two  or  three  are  gath- 
ered together  in  my  name,  there  am  I  in  the 
midst  of  them."  (Matt.  XVIII  20)  In  us- 
ing the  term  "I"  Jesus  speaks  in  the  cosmic 


124          THE  LIGHT  OF  MEN 

or  universal  sense.  He  did  not  mean  that 
he,  the  personal  Jesus,  even  in  his  aspect  of 
a  Christ,  would  specifically  be  there,  but  that 
the  stupendous  potencies  of  Immanent 
Spirit,  with  which  he  was  one,  would  over- 
shadow and  inspire  them.  In  their  outward 
aspect  these  sacramental  meals,  or  love- 
feasts  as  they  have  often  been  called,  ("Holy 
banquets"  is  Philo's  name  for  them,)  typi- 
fied brotherhood,  the  sharing  of  the  common 
good,  the  unity  of  all  men ;  and  it  was  doubt- 
less in  this  spirit  that  Jesus  sat  down  with 
the  twelve,  all  of  them  oppressed  and  over- 
strained, but  only  one  —  the  Master — know- 
ing clearly  the  immediate  and  imminent  rea- 
son. Yes,  one  other — the  traitor  who  was 
about  to  betray  him. 

"And  as  they  were  eating,  Jesus  took 
bread,  and  blessed  it  and  brake  it,  and  gave 
to  the  disciples,  and  said,  Take,  eat:  this  is 
my  body."  (Matt.  XXVI  26)  (Compare 
with,  "And  the  Word  was  made  flesh,  and 
dwelt  among  us. ' '  John  114.)  "  And  he  took 
the  cup  and  gave  thanks,  and  gave  it  to  them, 


JESUS  OF  NAZAKETH         125 

saying,  Drink  ye  all  of  it;  for  this  is  my 
blood  of  the  new  testament  (covenant)  which 
is  shed  for  many."  (Matt.  XXVI  27-28) 

The  events  of  the  Last  Supper  embody  a 
profound  symbology,  an  almost  inexpressible 
abstraction.  Jesus  utilised  the  ancient  cer- 
emonies of  the  Paschal  feast,  its  bread  and 
wine  and  its  terminology,  to  illustrate  the 
inner  significance  of  his  own  mission  to  man, 
and  of  the  Immanence  of  Spirit  in  man  as 
well  as  in  him.  The  disciples  were  to  become 
partakers  with  him  in  this  knowledge.  They 
were  to  "eat  of  his  flesh."  Through  the  re- 
ception and  quickening  of  an  "inward  and 
spiritual  grace"  they  were  to  enter  into  con- 
sciousness of  the  mystery  of  Son-ship. 

"I  (the  Spirit)  am  that  bread  of  life. 
Your  fathers  did  eat  manna  in  the  wilder- 
ness and  are  dead.  This  is  the  bread  which 
cometh  down  from  heaven,  that  a  man  may 
eat  thereof  and  not  die."  (John  VI 48-50)  "If 
any  man  eat  of  this  bread  he  shall  live  for- 
ever; and  the  bread  that  I  will  give  is  my 
i,  which  I  will  give  for  the  life  of  the 


126          THE  LIGHT  OF  MEN 

world."  (John  VI  51)  "Except  ye  eat  the 
flesh  of  the  Son  of  Man  and  drink  his  blood, 
ye  have  no  life  in  you." 17  (John  VI  53) 

For  "the  Lord's  body"  (for  body,  read 
substance)  is  the  fire  of  the  Living  Spirit: 
and  to  "eat  and  drink  of  it,"  is  to  be  touched 
by  that  Spirit.  * '  He  that  eateth  my  flesh  and 
drinketh  my  blood  dwelleth  in  me  and  I  in 
him."  (John  VI  56)  The  Christ-substance 
is  the  "living  manna,"  as  well  as  the  "wine 
of  God";  and,  even  as  of  the  material  food 
which  we  eat,  the  vital  elements  are  absorbed 
to  the  growth  and  strengthening  of  the  ma- 
terial body,  so,  to  eat  of  Christ's  "body,"  to 
drink  of  his  "blood,"  is  to  absorb,  to  become 
saturated  with,  that  Spirit  of  which  he  was 
the  incarnate  expression ;  in  other  words,  to 
become  transformed  —  regenerated  —  born 
anew.  And  this  transformation  is  simply  an 
expansion  of  consciousness. 

The  supper  over,  Jesus  gave  his  disciples 
an  example  in  humility  and  brotherhood. 

"Jesus  knowing  that  the  Father  had  given 
all  things  into  his  hands,  and  that  he  was 
come  from  God,  and  went  to  God :  he  riseth 


JESUS  OF  NAZARETH         127 

from  supper  and  laid  aside  his  garments, 
and  took  a  towel  and  girded  himself.  After 
that  he  poureth  water  into  a  basin,  and  began 
to  wash  the  disciples'  feet,  and  to  wipe  them 
with  the  towel  wherewith  he  was  girded." 
(John  XIII  3-5)  From  one  astonished  and 
reluctant  follower  to  another  went  the  Mas- 
ter in  his  lowly  task,  demonstrating  to  them 
in  his  own  person  that  service  to  man  con- 
secrates and  cannot  derogate,  and  that  pure 
love  is,  and  must  be,  ancillary. 

"If  I  then,  your  Lord  and  Master,  have 
washed  your  feet,  ye  ought  also  to  wash  one 
another's  feet.  For  I  have  given  you  an  ex- 
ample, that  ye  should  do  as  I  have  done  to 
you.  Verily,  verily  I  say  unto  you,  the  ser- 
vant is  not  greater  than  his  lord ;  neither  is 
he  that  is  sent  greater  than  he  that  sent 
him."  (John  XIII  14-16) 

Memorable  words  spake  Jesus  to  the 
eleven  on  that  parting  night.  In  the  gospel 
of  John  there  are  five  chapters  of  unap- 
proachable beauty  devoted  to  them.  And 
could  Love  breathe  a  diviner  benediction? 
"Peace  I  leave  with  you,  my  peace  I  give 


128          THE  LIGHT  OF  MEN 

unto  you :  not  as  the  world  giveth  give  I  unto 
you.  Let  not  your  heart  be  troubled,  neither 
let  it  be  afraid/'  (John  XIV  27) 

The  dark  hour  was  at  hand.  The  Master 's 
earthly  ministry  was  concluded.  No  longer 
he  tarried.  ' '  Arise,  let  us  go  hence, ' '  he  says 
to  them. 

"And  when  they  had  sung  an  hymn  they 
went  out  into  the  Mount  of  Olives/'  (Matt. 
XXVI  30)  to  pass  the  heavy  intervening 
hours.18 

Into  the  silence  and  darkness  of  the  brood- 
ing midnight  is  projected  the  tumult  of  an 
approaching  multitude ;  trampling  of  many 
feet,  hoarse  cries,  clanking  of  mail,  the  flare 
of  torches;  and,  in  this  lurid  uproar,  the 
traitor  approaching  to  betray  his  Lord. 

The  scenes  in  the  sacred  tragedy  now  has- 
ten to  its  close.  Event  follows  event  with 
overwhelming  rapidity.  The  seizure,  the 
dragging  into  the  presence  of  his  priestly  ac- 
cusers, the  haling  before  the  Roman  gover- 
nor— who  would  willingly  have  released 
him — the  condemnation  to  death,  the  scourg- 
ing, the  crowning  with  thorns ;  then  the  drag- 


JESUS  OF  NAZARETH         129 

ging  of  the  Divine  Man  —  non-resistent 19  — 
through  the  streets  like  a  criminal;  he  stag- 
gering, fainting  beneath  the  weight  of  his 
own  gallows,  amid  the  insults,  the  curses,  the 
taunts,  the  revilings  of  the  surging  fickle 
mob  —  that  mob  which  only  a  few  days  before 
had  been  screaming  itself  hoarse  with  hosan- 
nas;  and,  last,  Golgotha  —  and  the  supreme 
catastrophe!  Except  for  the  purgation  of 
one 's  soul,  one  does  not  willingly  linger  over 
these  harrowing  scenes. 

The  hour  in  which  our  Lord  of  Light  shed 
his  mortal  sheath  and  resumed  spiritual 
freedom  was  characterised  by  tremendous 
cosmic  and  psychic  disturbances. 

We  have  already  noted  that  the  entrance 
into  the  earth-plane  of  an  Avatar  sets  up 
throughout  the  Cosmos  a  stupendous  sympa- 
thetic vibration.  Even  so  must  there  come  a 
cyclic  shock  at  the  passing  of  an  Avatar  from 
the  earth-plane,  and  even  so  it  is  recorded. 
Ominous  storm-clouds  gathered,  pile  on  pile. 
The  sun  became  obscured,  and  a  weird,  lurid, 
greenish  gloom  pervaded  the  atmosphere. 
"Now  from  the  sixth  hour  there  was  dark- 


130          THE  LIGHT  OF  MEN 

ness  over  all  the  land  unto  the  ninth  hour." 
(Matt.  XXVII 45)  Heavy  thunder-mutter- 
ings  were  heard  —  far-rolling — then  nearer. 
Shrill,  sinister  gusts  of  wind  arose,  shrieked 
across  the  naked  hills,  and  died  away  into  a 
boding  breathlessness.  Birds  fled  in  fright- 
ened flocks  to  shelter ;  cattle  huddled  together 
in  their  byres.  Nature  seemed  holding  her- 
self for  a  moment  in  hideous  and  portentous 
syncope. 

"And  when  Jesus  had  cried  with  a  loud 
voice,  he  said,  Father,  into  thy  hands  I  com- 
mend my  spirit:  and  having  thus  said  he 
gave  up  the  ghost."  (Luke  XXIII  46)  20 

At  the  same  moment,  in  blinding  flashes  of 
livid  lightning,  reverberating  thunder-peals, 
and  shrieking  winds,  the  most  baleful  tem- 
pest ever  known  broke  over  the  land.  And 
the  earth,  in  consonance,  heaved  and  shud- 
dered, shaken  to  her  deeps  by  earthquake. 
Walls  toppled,  great  rocks  were  torn  from 
their  bases,  fissures  yawned  suddenly  in  the 
ground,  while,  in  direst  panic,  men  fled  all 
ways  at  once. 

"And  behold  the  vail  of  the  temple  was 


JESUS  OF  NAZARETH         131 

rent  in  twain,  .  .  .  and  the  earth  did 
quake,  and  the  rocks  rent."  (Matt.  XXVII 
51) 

Strange  apparitions  were  seen.  ' '  And  the 
graves  were  opened,  and  many  bodies  of  the 
saints  which  slept  arose,  and  came  out  of  the 
graves,  .  .  .  and  appeared  to  many." 
(Matt.  XXVII  52-53) 

This  is  not  strictly  literal.  The  body  in 
the  grave  is  no  more  than  the  cold  ashes  upon 
your  hearth;  the  fire  is  not  there.  The 
''saints"  who  ''appeared  to  many"  were  dis- 
embodied spirits,  and  appeared  not  in  their 
material  forms  but  in  their  astral  bodies  — 
the  envelope  in  which  the  spirit  remains 
clothed  for  some  time  after  the  dense,  or 
physical  body  is  shed.21  The  astral  body  is 
the  exact  counterpart  of  the  dense  body,  only 
more  ethereal  in  substance ;  but  to  the  clair- 
voyant vision  it  appears  the  same.  It  is 
quite  likely  that  these  spirits  often  pervaded 
this  locality,  but  were  not  perceived.  The 
intense  elemental  disturbances  attending  the 
crucifixion  doubtless  quickened  the  sensitive- 
ness of  many  persons  who  were  not  ordinari- 


132          THE  LIGHT  OF  MEN 

ily  psychic,  and  rendered  them  for  the  nonce 
clairvoyant,  so  that  they  were  able  to  per- 
ceive these  appearances. 

So,  amid  tumults  and  portents,  the  curtain 
fell  upon  the  sacred  drama.  Cherishing 
hands  took  down  the  inanimate  body  from  its 
bloody  tree,  wrapped  it  in  a  linen  garment, 
and  laid  it  in  a  new  rock-hewn  sepulchre; 
then,  sorrowing,  and  with  lacerated  hearts, 
left  there  the  mortal  part  of  Jesus  of 
Nazareth. 


We  read  that  the  people  who  came  to  listen 
to  the  teaching  of  Jesus  "were  astonished  at 
his  doctrine,  for  he  taught  them  as  one  hav- 
ing authority  and  not  as  the  scribes."  (Matt. 
VII 28)  Many  precepts  for  conduct  he  gave 
them,  adding  thereto  the  final  commentary, 
"Whosoever  therefore  shall  break  one  of  the 
least  of  these  commandments,  and  shall  teach 
men  so,  he  shall  be  called  the  least  in  the 
kingdom  of  heaven  (of  the  Spirit)  ;  but  who- 
soever shall  do  and  teach  them,  the  same  shall 


JESUS  OF  NAZARETH         133 

be  called  great  in  the  kingdom  of  heaven." 
(Matt.  V  19) 

The  ethics  of  Jesus  are  unequivocal.  They 
are  an  expression  of  those  principles  of  ab- 
stract virtue  which  we  find  rooted  within  all 
of  the  great  religions  which  the  world  has 
ever  known.  Ethics  are  not  per  se  religion, 
but  they  are  religion  translated  into  conduct. 
Ethics  underlie,  fore-run,  and  also  accom- 
pany spiritual  enlightenment.  They  are  the 
stepping  stones  by  which  a  man  rises  into  his 
higher  nature ;  for  virtue  is  a  principle,  and 
not  a  convention.  Man 's  sense  of  his  respon- 
sibility toward  God  and  toward  his  fellow 
man  has  varied  from  age  to  age,  but  that  in 
no  way  affects  the  fundamental  principle; 
even  as  the  condition  of  a  man 's  optic  nerve  — 
the  amount  which  it  is  enabled  individually 
to  perceive  —  in  no  way  affects  the  flood  of 
light  which  the  sun  is  forever  pouring  forth. 

Those  teachers  of  modern  economics  who 
advance  the  postulate  that  morals  are  the 
man-made  products  of  experience ;  not  fixed 
principles  but  fluctuant  expediencies,  se- 


134          THE  LIGHT  OF  MEN 

lected  from  age  to  age  or  race  to  race,  as  gen- 
erally best  adapted  to  a  particular  period, 
are  stating  only  half  —  the  smaller  part  —  of 
the  proposition.  They  leave  entirely  out  of 
account  that  vital  something  underlying  eth- 
ics which  has  prompted  their  evolution ;  viz, 
the  spiritual  impulse ;  first  operating  only  as 
an  instinct,  later  evolving  into  conscious  self- 
direction.  Without  this  underlying  prin- 
ciple man  would  never  have  evolved  any 
standard  of  conduct  at  all,  but  would  have  re- 
mained a  ravening  beast.  Ethics  then  are 
not  crystallised  social  conventions,  nor  regu- 
lations of  temporary  expediency,  but  are 
fixed  principles  founded  upon  the  bed-rock 
of  spiritual  law ;  and  an  individual,  or  a  com- 
munity, or  a  civilisation,  in  proportion  as  it 
be  spirtually  developed  or  the  reverse,  will 
carry  a  high  or  a  low  standard  of  moral  con- 
duct. Our  conduct  may  thus  vary,  but  the 
incentive,  the  command  to  virtue  is  an  ab- 
straction which  never  varies. 

Let  us  examine  some  of  the  precepts  for 
conduct  formulated  by  Jesus. 

"Judge  not  that  ye  be  not  judged,  for  with 


JESUS  OF  NAZARETH         135 

what  judgment  ye  judge,  ye  shall  be  judged, 
and  with  what  measure  ye  mete  it  shall  be 
measured  to  you  again."  (Matt.  VII 1) 

"First  cast  out  the  beam  in  thine  own  eye ; 
and  then  shalt  thou  see  clearly  to  cast  out  the 
mote  out  of  thy  brother's  eye."  (Matt.  VII 

5) 

"Judge  not  according  to  appearances,  but 
judge  righteous  judgment."  (John  VII  24) 

"When  thou  doest  alms,  let  not  thy  left 
hand  know  what  thy  right  hand  doeth." 
(Matt.  VI 3) 

"If  thy  right  eye  offend  thee  (causeth  thee 
to  stumble),  pluck  it  out,  and  cast  it  from 
thee.  .  .  And  if  thy  right  hand  offend 
thee  (causeth  thee  to  stumble),  cut  it  off  and 
cast  it  from  thee."  (Matt.  V  29-30) 

"I  say  unto  you,  swear  not  at  all.  .  . 
Let  your  communication  be  yea,  yea,  nay, 
nay;  for  whatsoever  is  more  than  these 
cometh  of  evil."  (Matt.  V  34-37) 

"Give  to  him  that  asketh  thee,  and  from 
him  that  would  borrow  of  thee  turn  not  thou 
away."  (Mat.  V  42) 

"Lay  not  up  for  yourselves  treasures  up- 


136          THE  LIGHT  OP  MEN 

on  earth  where  moth  and  rust  doth  corrupt 
and  where  thieves  break  through  and  steal." 
(Matt.  VI 19) 

"Take  no  thought  for  the  morrow ;  for  the 
morrow  shall  take  thought  for  the  things  of 
itself.  "(Matt.  VI  34) 

"Labour  not  for  the  meat  which  perisheth, 
but  for  that  meat  which  endureth  unto  ever- 
lasting life."  (John  VI  27) 

"Whosoever  will  save  his  life  shall  lose  it ; 
but  whosoever  shall  lose  his  life  for  my  sake 
and  the  gospel's,  the  same  shall  save  it.  For 
what  shall  it  profit  a  man  if  he  shall  gain  the 
whole  world  and  lose  his  own  soul  ?  Or  what 
shall  a  man  give  in  exchange  for  his  soul?" 
(Mark  VIII  35-37) 

"Fear  not  them  which  kill  the  body  but 
are  not  able  to  kill  the  soul."  (Matt.  X  28) 

"Love  your  enemies,  bless  them  that  curse 
you,  do  good  to  them  that  hate  you,  and  pray 
for  them  which  despitefully  use  you  and 
persecute  you."  (Matt.  V  44) 

"Thou  shalt  love  the  Lord  thy  God  with  all 
thy  heart,  and  with  all  thy  soul,  and  with  all 


JESUS  OP  NAZAKETH         137 

thy  mind.  .  .  Thou  shalt  love  thy  neigh- 
bour as  thyself."  (Matt.  XXII  37-39) 

"A  new  commandment  I  give  unto  you, 
that  ye  love  one  another :  as  I  have  loved  you 
that  ye  also  love  one  another."  (John  XIII 
34)  ' 

"If  ye  love  me,  keep  my  commandments." 
(John  XIV  15) 

" Abide  in  me  and  I  in  you. "  (John  XV  4) 

"Let  your  light  so  shine  before  men  that 
they  may  see  your  good  works  and  glorify 
your  Father  which  is  in  heaven."  (Matt.  V 
16) 

These  are  living  principles,  a  grand  code 
for  a  man  to  live  by;  not  altogether  easy  of 
attainment;  —  no,  certainly  not  easy  of  at- 
tainment ;  but  then  nothing  worth  the  having 
is  easy  of  attainment.  Have  you  ever 
climbed  a  great  mountain?  The  upward 
path  is  difficult  —  steep,  and  it  may  be  rocky 
and  broken.  The  feet  become  weary — 
wounded  perhaps.  At  moments  resolution 
flags,  and  the  effort  seems  scarcely  worth 
while,  but  something  urges  one  on.  The 


138          THE  LIGHT  OF  MEN 

breath  of  the  higher  altitudes  grips  one.  But 
when  the  summit  is  attained,  when  the  vision 
breaks,  what  an  uplift!  We  remember  no 
more  the  weariness  in  the  joy  of  attainment. 
The  rarefied  breezes  sweep  us  refreshingly. 
Our  eyes  roam  transported  over  an  immen- 
sity of  perspective.  The  whole  being  dilates 
with  an  exhilaration  for  which  one  finds  no 
name.  For  upon  the  mountain  top  desire 
becomes  aspiration.  Even  so  the  path  of 
righteousness  is  a  mountain  climb ;  and  it  is 
well  worth  while. 

But  our  responsibilities  do  not  end  with 
outward  conformity  to  the  canon ;  the  debas- 
ing inward  impulse  must  be  stamped  out  be- 
cause the  thought  is  father  to  the  deed.  Hath 
not  the  Master  said : 

"Whosoever  looketh  on  a  woman  to  lust 
after  her  hath  committed  adultery  already 
with  her  in  his  heart"?  (Matt.  V  28)  So 
with  all  the  passions.  The  heart  itself  must 
be  made  pure ;  the  thought,  the  word,  the  de- 
sire. 

"Not  that  which  goeth  into  the  mouth  de- 


JESUS  OF  NAZARETH         139 

fileth  a  man,  but  that  which  cometh  out  of 
the  mouth,  this  defileth  a  man,"  he  admon- 
ishes us.  "Those  things  which  proceed  out 
of  the  mouth  come  forth  from  the  heart,  and 
they  defile  a  man.  For  out  of  the  heart  pro- 
ceed evil  thoughts,  murders,  adulteries,  for- 
nications, thefts,  false  witness,  blasphemies. 
These  are  the  things  which  defile  a  man." 
(Matt.  XV  11-20) 

We  can  keep  no  compromise  with  our- 
selves. "Watch  and  pray,  that  ye  enter  not 
into  temptation."  (Matt.  XXVI  41)  We 
must  not  vacillate  between  two  allegiances, 
for  then  each  will  be  false.  We  must  be 
drastic  in  rooting  out  the  weeds  which  poison 
our  inward  fragrance,  not  in  part,  but  abso- 
lutely. For  if  we  indulge  ourselves  in  cher- 
ishing the  tiniest  shoot,  lo !  in  a  little  it  again 
springs  high,  and  the  flowers  of  grace  droop 
before  it.  And  it  is  this  spirit  of  compromise 
which  puts  in  default  so  much  of  our  effort. 
Jesus  has  pointed  out  to  us  very  plainly  that 
"no  man  can  serve  two  masters,  for  either  he 
will  hate  the  one  and  love  the  other ;  or  else 


140          THE  LIGHT  OF  MEN 

he  will  hold  to  the  one  and  despise  the  other. 
Ye  cannot  serve  God  and  mammon."  (Matt. 
VI  24) 

The  call  of  our  Master  demands  of  those 
who  would  in  any  sense  be  his  disciples  both 
to  know  and  to  do.  "  If  ye  know  these  things, 
happy  are  ye  if  ye  do  them."  (John  XIII 
17)  "If  any  man  will  come  after  me,  let 
him  deny  himself,"  (Matt.  XVI  24)  he  com- 
mands. The  self-indulgent  can  never  find 
the  divine  trail  of  the  Master's  footsteps. 
And  this  much  is  true ;  a  certain  amount  of 
asceticism  is  indispensable  for  the  growth 
of  the  higher  faculties.  Yet  Jesus  preached 
not  so  much  abstinence  as  an  elevated  tem- 
perance; a  state  of  poise,  not  where  the 
senses  have  to  be  fought  with  and  subdued  — 
though  that  is  a  real  enough  preliminary 
training — but  where  they  no  longer  hold 
any  seduction  for  us  because  of  that  wide 
horizon  of  the  higher  consciousness  which 
opens  before  us.  Impulses  of  the  lower  man 
drop  away  from  us  because  they  have  lost 
their  significance.  The  outward  lure  be- 
comes less  and  less  real ;  the  inward  promise 


JESUS  OF  NAZARETH         141 

burns  with  a  deeper  and  deeper  brightness. 
The  true  disciple  therefore  is  not  conspicu- 
ously ascetic  ;  he  is  only  superlatively  simple, 
observing  everywhere  a  quiet  and  cheerful 
austerity. 

By  this  self  -subdual  then  do  we  climb.  By 
this  discipline  are  we  fitted  for  grander 
things;  an  enlarged  manhood,  higher  facul- 
ties, finer  perceptions,  nobler  aims,  and  an 
ever-widening  and  inspiring  horizon  of  hu- 
man possibilities. 


Jesus  taught  extensively  by  means  of  alle- 
gories and  parables.  He  says  to  the  dis- 
ciples :  '  l  Unto  you  it  is  given  to  know  the  mys- 
tery of  the  Kingdom  of  God  :  but  unto  them 
that  are  without,  all  these  things  are  done  in 
parables  :  that  seeing  they  may  see  and  not 
perceive  ;  and  hearing  they  may  hear  and  not 
understand.  '  '  (Mark  IY,  11-12)  And  again  : 
"  Therefore  speak  I  to  them  in  parables:  be- 
cause they,  seeing,  see  not,  and,  hearing,  they 
hear  not,  neither  do  they  understand." 
(Matt.  XIII  13)  He  clothed  his  deeper 


142  THE  LIGHT  OF  MEN 

meaning  in  figures  of  speech,  knowing  that 
to  the  untrained  mind  such  images  appeal 
with  a  more  vivid  pertinence,  and  that  those 
capable  of  a  mystical  interpretation  would 
find,  within  the  more  obvious  story,  the  ker- 
nel of  mystery  which  he  had  placed  there. 
Each  mind  would  draw  from  it  the  quality 
of  lesson  for  which  it  was  individually  fit 
and  prepared.  Thus  do  men  go  to  the  well 
to  draw  water,  but  each  carries  away  only  so 
much  as  the  vessel  which  he  has  brought  may 
contain. 

Superficially  the  parables  seem  very 
simple  of  interpretation,  so  that  he  who  runs 
may  read ;  but,  studied  carefully,  we  find  that 
beneath  the  obvious  exoteric  meaning  there 
is  a  profounder  esoteric  significance. 

Many  of  them  are  brief  allegorical  pre- 
sentments of  the  relation  of  the  lower  self  to 
the  higher  self ;  and  thus  the  drama  is  an  in- 
terior one,  played  out  in  the  depths  of  a 
man's  soul.  In  the  allegory  of  the  Prodigal 
Son  it  is  the  Ego's  lower  nature  which, 
wasted  and  starving  through  the  satieties  of 
the  senses,  turns  at  last  to  its  onlv  true 


JESUS  OF  NAZARETH         143 

home  —  the  higher  Self,  or  divine  "Light- 
ray,"  burning  ever  at  the  final  centre  of  con- 
sciousness. The  Spirit  is  ever  pressing 
from  within,  calling  for  recognition.  (The 
Father  runs  to  meet  him.)  The  Light-ray 
suffuses  (i.e.,  rejoices  over)  the  lower  man 
with  spiritual  consciousness.  (He  prepares 
a  banquet.)  All  true  enlightment  comes 
from  within.  A  similar  interpretation  may 
be  put  upon  the  story  of  the  woman  who 
found  a  piece  of  silver  (i.e.,  found  herself)  ; 
and  there  are  many  more. 

There  are  many  figures  relating  to  the 
kingdom  of  heaven.  "The  kingdom  of 
heaven  is  like  unto  a  treasure  hid  in  three 
measures  of  meal;"  etc.  "The  kingdom  of 
heaven  is  like  a  merchant  seeking  goodly 
pearls,"  etc.  "The  kingdom  of  heaven  is 
like  unto  a  net  which  a  man  took  and  cast  in- 
to the  sea, ' '  etc.  '  *  The  kingdom  of  heaven  is 
like  unto  a  certain  king  who  made  a  mar- 
riage for  his  son,"  etc.  And  finally  we  are 
specifically  told  that  "the  kingdom  of  heaven 
is  within  you, ' '  and  to  the  centre  of  being  we 
must  penetrate  if  we  would  find  it.  "Ask, 


144          THE  LIGHT  OP  MEN 

and  it  shall  be  given  you :  seek,  and  ye  shall 
find ;  knock,  and  it  shall  be  opened  unto  you. " 
It  is  in  the  depths  of  our  own  souls  that  we 
find  "the  Indwelling  Light,"  and  recognise 
Primal  Truth ;  not  because  of  the  authority 
of  any  written  scripture,  nor  yet  because  of 
the  persuasion  of  the  individual  experience 
of  any  other  person,  but  because  in  the  inner- 
most centres  of  being  there  comes  an  inde- 
finable moving  by  which  absolutely  we  know. 

The  kingdom  of  heaven  is  within  us  —  and 
it  is  the  Light-Kingdom.  Again  and  again, 
in  a  multitude  of  forms,  under  many  and 
varying  similes,  this  is  insisted  upon  —  is  the 
very  noumenon  of  the  teachings  of  Jesus. 
At  the  very  outset  we  find  it  set  forth  in  those 
marvellous  Beatitudes,  which,  if  we  look 
well,  we  shall  discover  are  all  presenting  one 
and  the  same  idea  —  the  greatness  of  this 
spiritual  finding. 

The  aim  of  all  spiritual  teaching  of  all 
time  being  toward  the  end  that  the  recipient 
shall  develop  in  himself  the  consciousness  of 
the  Mystery  within,  and  ultimately  the  power 
of  mystical  union  with  the  Supreme  Source, 


JESUS  OF  NAZARETH         145 

we  naturally  find  Jesus  in  this,  his  initial 
discourse,  emphasising  the  necessity  of  un- 
worldliness  as  a  preliminary  to  any  such  de- 
velopment. The  pursuit  of  material  objects, 
the  gratification  of  all  desires  which  are 
rooted  in  the  senses,  cannot,  and  never  does, 
bring  either  real  or  permanent  happiness. 
Even  as  we  grasp  it,  like  the  irised  foam  of 
the  sea,  it  melts  beneath  our  touch.  Its  twin 
is  pain:  its  aftermath  is  ashes.  It  is  only 
when  we  centre  upon  higher  things,  when  we 
choose  that  " better  part"  which  shall  not  be 
taken  away  from  us,  that  we  taste  that  pure 
joy  which  is  blessedness. 

"He  opened  his  mouth  and  taught  them, 
saying : 

"Blessed  are  the  poor  in  spirit:  for  theirs 
is  the  kingdom  of  heaven." 

The  poor  in  spirit  are  those  who  have  dis- 
carded the  cravings  of  the  world,  and  its  at- 
tendant restlessness  and  discontents.  This 
sense  of  freedom  with  regard  to  worldly 
things  comes  from  transcending  the  lower,  or 
material  self -consciousness,  with  the  higher, 
or  immaterial  self -consciousness ;  which  is  in 


146          THE  LIGHT  OF  MEN 

turn  the  losing  of  the  sense  of  separateness 
and  the  conciousness  of  the  Unity  and  One- 
ness of  all  things.  Therefore  the  kingdom 
of  heaven,  which  is  within,  is  theirs. 

"Blessed  are  they  that  mourn  for  they 
shall  be  comforted/' 

The  immediate  effect  of  detachment,  when 
we  acquire  the  sense  of  the  vanity  and  in- 
trinsic worthlessness  of  temporal  things,  is  a 
certain  unfocussed  sadness.  The  things  of 
the  world  do  not  satisfy,  yet  we  have  not 
quite  anchored  to  the  spirit;  but  such  as 
mourn  in  this  manner  shall  be  comforted  by 
being  shown  the  way  of  blessedness.  (Com- 
pare with  Matt.  XI  28-30)  '2 

"Blessed  are  the  meek;  for  they  shall  in- 
herit the  earth." 

This  word  has  been  badly  translated  as 
"meek,"  with  which  we  associate  a  certain 
servile,  or  even  hypocritical  connotation, 
which  is  very  far  from  the  true  meaning.  It 
would  be  better  rendered  as  "calm,"  or  calm 
in  a  steadfast  faith  in  the  ruling  of  the  All- 
power,  and  submission  to  the  same.  Those 
who  have  become  detached  from  the  world 


JESUS  OF  NAZARETH         147 

will  naturally  be  humble ;  for  what  to  most 
of  us  is  the  personal,  self-seeking  self  no 
longer  exists  for  them.  Because  they  desire 
nothing,  all  things  shall  be  theirs. 

"Blessed  are  they  which  do  hunger  and 
thirst  after  righteousness,  for  they  shall  be 
filled/' 

"Blessed  are  the  merciful  for  they  shall 
obtain  mercy." 

In  such,  God  will  develop  compassion  into 
infinite  love,  which  is  the  portal  of  the  king- 
dom. 

"Blessed  are  the  pure  in  heart,  for  they 
shall  see  God." 

For  "see"  substitute  "know;"  for  those 
high  perceptions  by  which  spirit  cognises 
Spirit  are  far  beyond  the  concepts  of  any 
sense.  To  know  God  one  must  be  God-like — 
purified,  detached,  uplifted. 

"Blessed  are  the  peacemakers  for  they 
shall  be  called  the  children  of  God." 

Harmony  is  the  seal  of  the  Law  of  love; 
discord,  inharmony,  the  hall-mark  of  the 
passions  —  envy,  hatred,  greed,  strife  —  self- 
seeking  in  all  its  forms.  He  who  promotes 


148          THE  LIGHT  OF  MEN 

peace  upon  the  earth-  or  sense-plane  is  there- 
by inaugurating  social  harmony,  and  there- 
fore opening  the  gates  of  righteousness ;  but 
the  verse  carries  a  more  esoteric  meaning. 
Those  who  subdue  the  discords  within  their 
own  bosoms  and  there  establish  spiritual  har- 
mony are  flinging  wide  the  gates  to  the  king- 
dom, and  shall  enter  into  the  " peace  of  (or 
in)  God  which  passeth  understanding;" 
therefore  shall  they  be  called  the  children,  or 
Sons  of  God. 

"Blessed  are  they  which  are  persecuted 
for  righteousness'  sake;  for  theirs  is  the 
kingdom  of  heaven." 

He  who  attempts  to  follow  out  the  path  of 
unworldliness  will  find  himself  very  likely  in 
opposition  to  many  things ;  convention,  fam- 
ily, neighbours,  society  at  large,  who  will  not 
spare  the  lash  of  criticism ;  but  no  man  who 
has  steadfastly  fixed  his  mind  upon  the  high- 
er life  will  be  deterred  by  these  stings.  Al- 
though the  carnal  man  be  wounded,  rather 
will  he  "rejoice  and  be  exceeding  glad,"  for 
he  will  know  that  he  is  following  the  path 
which  leads  into  the  kingdom. 


JESUS  OF  NAZAKETH         149 

"Blessed  are  ye  when  men  shall  revile  you 
and  persecute  you,  and  shall  say  all  manner 
of  evil  against  you  falsely  for  my  sake.  Re- 
joice and  be  exceeding  glad,  .  .  .  for  so 
persecuted  they  the  prophets  which  were  be- 
fore you/'  (Matt.  V  2-12) 

The  kingdom  of  heaven  is  within  us ;  for, 
as  many  have  already  discovered,  heaven  is 
not  a  place,  but  a  state  of  consciousness ;  and 
this  kingdom  of  beatitude  is  ours  —  now. 
This  god-consciousness  is  our  portion,  our 
heritage ;  but  to  enter  into  it  we  shall  have  to 
come  "clothed  upon"  with  righteousness. 
We  must  don  that  mystic  wedding  garment 
spoken  of  in  the  parable  —  that  white  samite 
of  the  soul  —  that  robe  of  glory,  which  is 
withheld  from  us  so  long  as  we  remain  con- 
taminate with  the  lures,  the  shows,  the  shams 
of  the  material  world.  The  Ego  is  a  mirror 
which  we  keep  clouded  with  our  petty  and 
ignoble  aims.  If  we  would  have  it  reflect 
holy  things  we  must  purge  it  of  all  ignoble 
images.  We  must  cleanse  and  exalt  it.  We 
must  make  of  it  a  burnished  surface  which 
at  last,  and  only  so,  will  reflect  that  Divinity 


150          THE  LIGHT  OF  MEN 

which,  could  we  but  realise  it,  always  poten- 
tially is. 

Devotion  and  meditation  are  the  paths 
which  lead  us  to  Spiritual  Union.  The  hu- 
man lover,  saturated  with  his  love,  forgets  all 
but  the  beloved,  and  does  not  really  live  ex- 
cepting in  those  hours  which  he  spends  in  the 
longed-for  presence.  No  sacrifice  seems  too 
great,  no  service  is  too  exacting,  to  attain  this 
joy.  Self  is  forgotten  in  devotion.  Exactly 
so  it  becomes  with  the  spiritual  lover. 
Mystical  Union  might  be  illustrated  by  the 
simile  of  the  water  spout  upon  the  sea.  The 
drooping  cloud  whirls  and  swirls  over  the 
static  waters,  creating  centres  of  excitement 
which  toss  its  surface  into  points  of  lifting 
waves.  Drawn  by  its  attraction  up  toward 
the  point  of  downward-reaching  cloud,  they 
leap  and  surge — and  then  fall  back.  Pre- 
sently comes  a  wave  which  lifts  itself  higher 
than  the  others;  —  lifts  itself — lifts  itself, 
inevitably  drawn,  until  the  point  of  water  is 
caught  by  the  point  of  cloud  and  sucked  up 
into  it;  and  the  two,  become  one,  sweep  on 
in  a  vaprous  column  of  dynamic  power.  The 


JESUS  OF  NAZABETH         151 

Divine  Cloud  is  always  circling  above  our 
static  lives,  reaching  down  for  points  of  con- 
tact, which  we  must  make.  The  Divine  Com- 
pulsion, though  it  invites  and  attracts,  does 
not  stoop  below  a  certain  level.  We  are  con- 
strained, if  we  would  unite  with  it,  to  lift  our- 
selves to  that  level  ;  —  lift  ourselves,  until  lo  ! 
the  lower  touches  the  higher,  and  is  caught 
up  into  it,  swept  into  the  mighty  rhythm  of 
seonic  life.  And  the  wonderful  part  of  it  all, 
when  this  happens,  is  that  the  self  finds  that 
it  is  still  itself,  that  that  with  which  it  has 
become  fused  is  none  other  than  its  own 
higher  self  —  an  integer  of  the  ALL. 


When  the  disciples  of  John  came  to  Jesus 
and  asked  him,  "Art  thou  he  that  should 
come  or  do  we  look  for  another1?  Jesus  an- 
swered and  said  unto  them,  Go  and  shew 
John  again  those  things  which  ye  do  hear 
and  see.  The  blind  receive  their  sight,  and 
the  lame  walk,  the  lepers  are  cleansed,  and 
the  deaf  hear,  the  dead  are  raised  up,  and  the 
poor  have  the  gospel  preached  to  them." 


152  THE  LIGHT  OF  MEN 

(Matt.  XI  3-5)  He  would  seem  to  have  ut- 
tered these  words  as  a  conclusive  proof  of  his 
claim  to  Messiahship;  yet  these  very  phe- 
nomena which  he  adduces  to  convince  have 
increasingly  proved  stumbling  blocks  in  the 
minds  of  the  literal  and  materialistic,  who 
would  bound  their  horizons  by  the  very  lim- 
ited experience  of  the  five  senses. 

It  has  become  the  habit  in  this  so-called 
scientific  day  of  ours  to  discredit  the  miracles 
of  Jesus,  to  relegate  them  to  the  domain  of 
superstition  or  of  fable,  and  to  cast  them  out 
of  account  as  something  historically  spuri- 
ous. But  what  is  a  miracle?  The  official 
definition  of  the  dictionaries 23  declares  that 
miracle  implies  the  supernatural  —  an  in- 
fringement or  violation  of  natural  law ;  and 
this  is  the  generally  accepted  point  of  view. 
But  the  word  " miracle"  is  merely  the  Eng- 
lish rendition  of  the  Greek  word  "simeion," 
which  means  a  sign.  The  great  prophets 
gave  a  sign,  that  the  authority  of  their  higher 
powers  might  be  recognised. 

All  basic  law  may  be  regarded  as  "an  ex- 
ertion of  divine  power;'*  but  in  the  majority 


JESUS  OF  NAZARETH         153 

of  cases  we  are  used  to  these  operations,  and 
expect  them.  The  supernatural  ceases  to  be 
supernatural  and  becomes  the  natural  when 
we  understand,  or  partially  understand  it. 
Any  phenomenon  may  therefore  be  regarded 
as  a  miracle  before  we  have  discovered,  or 
partially  discovered,  the  laws  which  govern 
it,  and  a  fact  after  we  have  done  so.  There 
are  miracles  unfolding  themselves  daily  — 
nay,  hourly  —  all  about  us,  and  we  pass  them 
blind.  There  are  no  greater  wonders  than 
the  rising  and  setting  of  the  sun,  Nature's 
sistole  and  diastole  of  day  and  night,  and  the 
changes  of  the  solar  year;  yet  these  things 
are  no  longer  wonders  to  us  because  we  have 
learned  that  they  are  contingent  upon  the 
revolution  of  the  earth  upon  its  axis  and  up- 
on its  orbit  around  the  sun.  And  what  of 
this  stupendous  procession  of  the  stars, 
nightly  unfolded  before  us?  —  these  illimit- 
able streams  of  incalculable  suns,  each  the 
centre  of  a  vast  system  of  its  own;  moving, 
ever  majestically  moving,  through  ungauged 
spans  of  space?  Millions  upon  millions  of 
stars;  universe  upon  universe.  To  the  as- 


154          THE  LIGHT  OF  MEN 

tronomer  and  to  the  thinker  alone  these  are 
profound  wonders;  to  the  multitude,  mere 
pin-points  of  an  experience  too  familiar  and 
recurrent  to  command  more  than  a  transient 
attention. 

It  is  an  axiom  that  the  enigma  of  yesterday 
becomes  the  commonplace  of  today;  a  fact 
which  the  restrospect  of  a  single  century  suf- 
fices to  attest.  Consider  alone  the  question 
of  electricity,  that  superlative  force  the 
slightest  unguarded  contact  with  which  will 
destroy  the  human  organism,  but  which  the 
genius  of  man — not  because  he  knows  what 
it  is,  but  because  he  has  discovered  some  of 
the  laws  which  govern  it — has  harnessed  to 
do  his  will  in  a  variety  of  ways.  Yet  a  cen- 
tury ago  such  possibilities  of  the  power  of  an 
unknown  fluid  would  not  have  been  credited ; 
and  two  centuries  ago  a  man  who  should  have 
undertaken  to  demonstrate  a  tithe  of  them 
would,  in  many  lands,  have  run  good  risk  of 
perishing  at  the  stake.  Consider  further  this 
later  marvel;  that  a  man  with  a  bit  of  ma- 
chinery may  throw  his  thought  into  the  void 
of  space,  and  hundreds  of  miles  away  it  will 


JESUS  OF  NAZARETH         155 

be  caught  up  by  a  similar  bit  of  machinery 
and  transmitted  into  a  living  message  for 
some  other  man.  Is  not  this  literally  a  mes- 
sage from  the  unseen?  But  we  happen  to 
understand  the  mechanism. 

And  this  commonest  of  all  common  things, 
this  universal  thing  —  since  the  Cosmos  is 
composed  of  it ;  this  thing  in  which  the  soul 
of  man  is  projected,  immersed,  and  by  which 
the  majority  of  men  appear  to  be  bound  hand 
and  foot — matter.  Can  anyone  elucidate 
the  root-nature  of  matter  ? 

Sir  Isaac  Newton,  some  two  hundred  years 
ago,  defined  matter  as  composed  of  "solid, 
massy,  hard,  impenetrable  movable  par- 
ticles;" and  this  concept  of  the  unchange- 
ableness  of  the  physical  atom  as  an  ultimate 
particle  dominated  physics  until  quite  a  re- 
cent date.  More  metaphysical  minds  how- 
ever—  and  it  is  not  possible  to  exclude  meta- 
physics from  science — have  entertained  the 
idea  that  matter  might  be  indefinitely  di- 
visible. In  the  discovery  of  radium  this  idea 
was  conclusively  proved.  Science  arrived 
"behind  the  atom,"  and  discovered  that  the 


156          THE  LIGHT  OF  MEN 

atom  is  in  fact  continuously  and  spontan- 
eously breaking  itself  up  and  transforming 
itself  into  something  else ;  in  short  that  it  is 
so  far  from  being  fixed  that  it  is  practically 
protean.  The  radium  atom  disintegrates  in- 
to infinitesimal  particles  to  which  science  has 
given  the  name  of  electrons,  and,  as  the  elec- 
tron appears  to  be  always  in  a  high  state  of 
vibration,  science  conceives  of  it  farther  as 
not  matter  at  all  but  whirls  or ' '  vortex-rings ' ' 
formed  within  that  impalpable  substance  to 
which  it  gives  the  name  of  ether.  Ether  is 
postulated  as  a  fluid,  filling  all  space,  and  had 
hitherto  been  considered  to  be  a  medium  for 
the  transmission  of  light,  etc.  But  all  this 
indefinable  something  which  fills  all  space, 
and  of  the  real  nature  of  which  material 
science  offers  no  solution,  now  appears  to  be 
alive,  to  be  in  fact  a  cosmic  substance  of  in- 
finite tenuity,  rarity,  and  subtlety,  within 
which  inhere  and  exist  the  vibrations  of  light, 
heat,  electricity  (and  what  more?)  as  forms 
of  energy.  Matter  thus  resolves  itself  into 
forms  of  motion ;  this  is  the  position  of  mod- 
ern science. 


JESUS  OF  NAZARETH         157 

The  physical  atom  is  too  infinitesimal  to 
be  cognised  by  any  material  means,  and  has 
to  be  postulated.  Cannot  science  take  one 
step  farther  into  more  arcane  regions,  and 
postulate  still  more  sublimated  laws  ?  Will 
she  not  perhaps  be  compelled  finally  to  recog- 
nise that  matter  is  only  one  aspect  of 
Spirit — the  outer  world  being  but  a  reflec- 
tion of  the  inner  world — and  that  there  ex- 
ists a  continuous  interplay  and  circuit  of 
spiritual  currents  between  the  unseen  and 
the  seen,  between  the  impalpable  and  the  pal- 
pable, between  the  unsubstantial  and  the  sub- 
stantial; laws  within  laws,  forces  within 
forces?  The  esoteric  scientist  is  already 
aware  that  these  things  are  so,  and  he  fur- 
ther knows  that  every  lift  in  sublimation  in- 
volves a  gain  in  power,  and  that  therefore  the 
higher  and  finer  law  transcends,  controls, 
and  may  be  made  to  nullify  the  lower,  or 
grosser,  laws.  For  the  greater  includes  the 
less. 

We  are  not  then  to  regard  the  miracles  of 
Jesus  as  violations  of  natural  law,  but  as  the 
over-operation  of  finer  natural  laws  than  any 


158          THE  LIGHT  OF  MEN 

which  science  has  yet  cognised  or  formulated. 
The  key  to  miracle,  to  the  roots  of  phe- 
nomena, therefore  lies  in  a  larger  science. 

Wonder-working  is  not  peculiar  to  the 
career  of  Jesus.  It  has  formed  a  striking 
feature  in  that  of  every  Avatar;  the  first 
means  by  which  he  may  excite  the  awe,  and 
command  the  attention  and  faith  of  the 
masses,  thus  rendering  them  receptive  to, 
and  preparing  them  to  absorb,  those  spiritual 
teachings  which  he  is  about  to  pour  into 
them.  Nor  are  such  phenomena  confined  to 
Avatars.  All  Adepts,  being,  by  virtue  of  their 
adeptship,  Masters  of  power,  are  able  to  ex- 
ercise similar  dominion  over  elemental 
forces.24 

That  Jesus  regarded  his  own  wonder- 
working as  means  to  an  end  rather  than  an 
end  in  itself  is  evidenced  by  a  passage  in 
Matthew  (IX  36)  where  after  he  had  per- 
formed a  prodigious  miracle  —  the  feeding 
of  four  thousand  persons  —  "he  was  moved 
with  compassion  for  them,  because  they 
fainted,  and  were  scattered  abroad,  as  sheep 
having  no  shepherd. "  It  was  to  minister  to 


JESUS  OF  NAZAKETH         159 

souls  rather  than  to  bodies  that  he  sought. 
He  exhorts  men,  "Believe  that  I  am  in  the 
Father  and  the  Father  in  me,  or  else  believe 
me  for  the  very  work's  sake."  (John  XIV 

11) 

The  first  recorded  miracle  of  Jesus  seems 
to  have  been  purely  an  exhibition  of  super- 
natural powers,  calculated  to  excite  amaze- 
ment and  awe.  He  was  one  of  a  number  of 
guests  at  a  wedding  festival  in  the  little  vil- 
lage of  Cana  in  Galilee.  Not  enough  wine  had 
been  provided,  and  the  supply  had  given  out. 
His  mother  came  to  him  and  said, l '  They  have 
no  wine."  Evidently  she  was  aware  that  he 
possessed  super-normal  powers,  and  ex- 
pected him  to  do  something. 

"  And  there  were  set  there  six  waterpots  of 
stone,  after  the  manner  of  the  purifying  of 
the  Jews,  containing  two  or  three  firkins 
apiece.  Jesus  saith  unto  them,  Fill  the 
waterpots  with  water.  And  they  filled  them 
up  to  the  brim.  And  he  saith  unto  them, 
Draw  out  now  and  bear  unto  the  governour 
of  the  feast.  And  they  bare  it.  When  the 
ruler  of  the  feast  had  tasted  the  water  that 


160          THE  LIGHT  OF  MEN 

was  made  wine,  and  knew  not  whence  it  was 
(but  the  servants  which  drew  the  water 
knew),  the  governour  of  the  feast  called  the 
bridegroom,  and  saith  unto  him,  Every  man 
at  the  beginning  doth  set  forth  good  wine; 
and  when  men  have  well  drunk,  then  that 
which  is  worse ;  but  thou  hast  kept  the  good 
wine  until  now.  This  beginning  of  miracles 
did  Jesus  in  Cana  of  Galilee,  and  mani- 
fested forth  his  glory;  and  his  disciples  be- 
lieved on  him."  (John  II  6-11) 

How  did  Jesus  change  the  character  of  the 
water  so  that  it  became  wine? 

Following  are  some  suggestions  as  to  the 
principles  which  might  have  been  employed 
in  this  and  kindred  phenomena.25 

Chemistry  tells  us  that  there  exists  a  defin- 
ite number  of  chemical  elements,  of  which  in 
different  combinations  —  from  the  inert  min- 
eral to  the  throbbing  heart  of  man — every 
object  of  the  world  (shall  we  say  the  uni- 
verse?) is  composed;  certain  combinations 
constituting  one  form  of  substance,  certain 
others,  other  forms  of  substance.  Every 
form  is  therefore,  in  its  physical  aspect,  a 


JESUS  OF  NAZAKETH         161 

congeries  of  chemical  atoms  of  sorts.  Fur- 
thermore special  chemical  processes  can  be 
made  by  a  re-arrangement  even  of  the  same 
kind  and  number  of  atoms  to  produce  things 
differing  essentially  in  form  and  properties. 
These  rearrangements  are  known  as ' '  isomer- 
ic  compounds. ' ' 26  These  chemical  elements, 
of  which  all  objects  in  the  world  are  com- 
posed, separate,  change,  recombine  into  other 
forms,  but  in  essence  they  appear  to  be  in- 
destructible.27 Furthermore  all  objects  or 
bodies  are  ceaselessly  throwing  off  infinitesi- 
mal particles  of  those  elements  of  which  they 
are  composed,  and  quite  as  ceaselessly  taking 
on  fresh  infinitestimal  particles  from  the  at- 
mosphere. 

We  have  already  seen  that  the  living  ether 
literally  " ensouls  matter,"  that  it  is  charged 
with  uncomputable  energy,  both  latent  and 
active ;  we  now  know  it  to  be  a  vast  reservoir 
of  every  constituent  necessary  to  organic  life 
in  any  and  every  form,  existing  exhaustlessly 
within  it.  In  fact,  in  the  modern  theory  of 
substance,  the  minute  etheric  "vortex-rings" 
earlier  referred  to  are  postulated  as  consti- 


162  THE  LIGHT  OF  MEN 

tuting,  in  differing  combinations,  the  chem- 
ical elements. 

The  body  of  the  wine 28  being  already  sup- 
plied by  the  water  which  was  in  the  jars, 
Jesus,  by  a  concentrated  effort  of  will-power, 
a  burning  volition,  as  it  were,  commanded  — 
that  is,  forced  —  from  the  circumambient  at- 
mosphere, which  was  palpitant  with  them, 
those  special  elements  into  the  water  which 
would  transform  its  substance  into  that  other 
substance  called  wine.  This  process  he  had 
the  power  to  render  instantaneous.  The  same 
process  might  have  been  employed  upon 
those  two  occasions  when  we  are  told  that  he 
fed  vast  multitudes  from  the  small  supply  of 
two  or  three  loaves  of  bread  and  several  small 
fishes.  As  he  broke  pieces  from  the  bread 
and  from  the  fish,  he  could  cause  those  con- 
stituent elements  of  which  bread  and  fish  are 
respectively  composed  to  rush  in  from  their 
etheric  reservoir,  and  fill  the  void;  and  by 
altering  the  rate  of  vibration  of  the  etheric 
substance  to  that  of  dense  substance,  it  would 
be  transformed  into  physical  (or  atomic) 


JESUS  OF  NAZARETH         163 

matter.  Therefore,  as  fast  as  a  loaf  or  a 
fish  was  broken  it  would  become  instanta- 
neously renewed  and  made  intact. 

Upon  one  occasion  the  disciples  were  cross- 
ing the  lake  of  Galilee  in  a  small  ship,  and 
Jesus,  who  had  not  accompanied  them,  but 
had  remained  in  retirement  occupied  with 
prayer  and  meditation,  came  walking  to  them 
across  the  water. 

"And  in  the  fourth  watch  of  the  night 
Jesus  went  unto  them,  walking  on  the  sea. 
And  when  the  disciples  saw  him  walking  on 
the  sea,  they  were  troubled,  saying,  It  is  a 
spirit ;  and  they  cried  out  for  fear.  But 
straightway  Jesus  spake  unto  them,  saying, 
Be  of  good  cheer :  it  is  I ;  be  not  afraid.  And 
Peter  answered  him  and  said,  Lord,  if  it  be 
thou,  bid  me  come  unto  thee  on  the  water. 
And  he  said,  Come.  And  when  Peter  was 
come  down  out  of  the  ship,  he  walked  on  the 
water  to  go  to  Jesus.  But  when  he  saw  the 
wind  boisterous,  he  was  afraid;  and  begin- 
ning to  sink,  he  cried,  saying,  Lord,  save  me. 
And  immediately  Jesus  stretched  forth  his 


164          THE  LIGHT  OF  MEN 

hand  and  caught  him,  and  said  unto  him,  O 
thou  of  little  faith,  wherefore  didst  thou 
doubt?"  (Matt.  XIV  25-31) 

There  exist  media  in  Nature  not  yet  fath- 
omed by  science.  There  is  a  law  of  levita- 
tion  as  well  as  of  gravitation,  and  the  former 
can  be  made  on  occasion  to  transcend  the  lat- 
ter.  All  students  of  psychic  phenomena  are 
familiar  with  the  action  of  this  law  in  a  small 
way.  Some  day  we  shall  better  understand 
its  magnitude.  Jesus  availed  himself  of  the 
law  of  levitation,  not  to  walk,  but  to  lift,  or 
move  himself  rapidly  above  the  surface  of 
the  water.  He  would  also  thus  have  upheld 
Peter  had  Peter  wholly  trusted  him.  Peter 
did  not  trust,  and  therefore  the  law  was  not 
operative  upon  him  until  the  Master 
"stretched  forth  his  hand,  and  caught  him." 

Upon  another  occasion  Jesus  with  his  dis- 
ciples was  crossing  this  tempestuous  inland 
sea  in  a  small  ship,  and  while  he  lay  asleep  a 
mighty  storm  arose. 

"And  there  arose  a  great  storm  of  wind, 
and  the  waves  beat  into  the  ship,  so  that  it 
was  now  full.  And  he  was  in  the  hinder 


JESUS  OF  NAZARETH         165 

part  of  the  ship,  asleep  on  a  pillow :  and  they 
awake  him  and  say  unto  him,  Master,  carest 
thou  not  that  we  perish  ?  And  he  arose,  and 
rebuked  the  wind,  and  said  unto  the  sea, 
Peace  be  still.  And  the  wind  ceased,  and 
there  was  a  great  calm.  And  he  said  unto 
them,  Why  are  ye  so  fearful  ?  How  is  it  that 
ye  have  no  faith  ?  And  they  feared  exceed- 
ingly, and  said  one  to  another,  What  manner 
of  man  is  this  that  even  the  wind  and  the  sea 
obey  him?"  (Mark  IV  37-41) 

Storms  are  due  to  inequalities  in  the  at- 
mospheric pressure,  causing  a  rapid  flow  of 
so-called  high-pressure  air  to  areas  of  dense, 
or  low-pressure  air.  Over  hill-locked  lakes 
such  sudden  flows  are  frequent,  and  are  more 
or  less  local.  By  loosening  the  constricted 
areas  —  perhaps  by  a  change  in  the  atmos- 
pheric vibration — Jesus  could  restore  the 
equilibrium  instantly. 

But  by  far  the  greater  part  of  the  miracles 
related  of  Jesus  have  reference  to  the  heal- 
ing of  the  sick. 

In  these  days  of  psycho-therapeutics  and 
of  mental  healing  cults  of  all  grades  and  de- 


166          THE  LIGHT  OF  MEN 

grees  it  seems  a  work  of  supererogation  to 
plead  for  the  power  of  the  spirit  over  the 
body.  The  difference  between  the  not  too 
perfect  cures  of  today  and  the  absolutely 
perfect  ones  of  Jesus  lies  in  this  perfection, 
and  that  his  power  further  rendered  his 
cures  absolute  and  instantaneous. 

A  very  large  proportion  of  bodily  disor- 
ders are  classed  clinically  under  the  head  of 
nervous  diseases.  Now  all  nervous  disturb- 
ance —  and  its  .effects  organically  are  often 
very  far-reaching — is  caused  primarily  by 
iriharmony  of  rhythm  between  the  physical, 
or  dense  body,  and  the  subtle,  or  astral 
body,  of  which  mention  has  already  been 
made.*  We  have  seen  above  that  "matter" 
is  a  something  in  a  high  state  of  vibration. 
Astral  substance  is  also  "matter,"  but  in  a 
still  higher  state  of  vibration.  In  robust 
and  normal  health  these  two  envelopes  or 
vehicles  of  the  human  body  are  vibrating 
harmoniously;  not  in  unison,  but  in  conso- 
nant rhythm,  after  the  manner  in  which  the 
harmonics  of  a  note  of  music  will  be  exact 

*  See  note  21. 


JESUS  OF  NAZARETH         167 

subdivisions  of  the  fundamental  note  and 
move  with  it.  Let  some  undue  excitement 
or  strain  disturb  the  nice  adjustment  of  the 
delicate  inter-rhythms  of  these  two  vehicles, 
and  the  whole  complex  machinery  of  the  hu- 
man organism  will  be  thrown  out  of  gear. 
Functional  disorders  ensue,  and  frequently 
organic  disease  follows  upon  functional  dis- 
order. It  would  be  a  simple  matter  for  the 
Master,  with  a  single  powerful  thought,  to 
readjust  the  rhythm  equilibrium,  and  the  re- 
sult of  such  re-adjustment  always  means 
health. 

Jesus  doubtless  used  various  methods  of 
cure,  for  the  resources  of  occult  science  are 
many.  One  method  probably  very  generally 
employed  would  be  to  unloose  and  draw  to  a 
focus  certain  potential  etheric  currents  of 
energy,  and,  turning  the  concentrated  point 
upon  the  afflicted  part,  re-vitalise  it.  This 
would  be  likely  to  be  the  method  in  most 
cases;  with  all  the  paralytics,  with  the  man 
who  had  the  withered  hand,  and  with  the 
lepers.  If  there  were  any  waste  of  tissue  it 
could  be  instantaneously  renewed  by  pro- 


168          THE  LIGHT  OF  MEN 

cesses  similar  to  the  first-named  miracles. 
The  blind  men  also  would  be  likely  to  have 
been  healed  in  this  manner.  This  burning- 
point  of  living  energy  would  act  with  dy- 
namic power,  analogous  to  a  burning-glass, 
re- vitalising  the  inhibited  nerve-centres,  or, 
in  cases  of  cataract,  burning  the  opaque  lens 
into  clarity,  as  fire  fuses  silica  into  trans- 
parent glass. 

Very  many  cases  might  have  been,  and 
probably  were,  healed  by  simply  coming 
within  the  radius  of  the  aura  of  Jesus. 
Something  has  already  been  said  about  the 
human  aura,*  which  is  an  emanation — one 
might  describe  it  as  electrons  thrown  off  — 
from  man's  ethereal  body.  Each  of  the  ve- 
hicles of  man  throws  off  a  radiation,  but  that 
which  is  usually  spoken  of  as  the  aura  pro- 
ceeds from  the  psychic  or  astral  principle. 
The  aura  is  a  form  of  energy,  and  therefore 
the  aura  of  any  human  being  to  some  extent 
affects  the  physical  and  mental  condition  of 
another  —  either  for  good  or  ill  —  who  comes 
within  its  radius.  The  aura  of  the  Master, 

*  See  note  5. 


JESUS  OF  NAZARETH         169 

being  of  the  highest  purity  and  power,  as 
well  as  of  greater  than  ordinary  extent,  be- 
came practically  (to  use  a  common  term)  a 
dynamo  of  life  for  all  who  came  within  its 
range. 

The  multitudes  who  thronged  about  him 
"besought  him  that  they  might  only  touch 
the  hem  of  his  garment,  and  as  many  as 
touched  were  made  perfectly  whole."  (Matt. 
XIV  36)  They  thought  that  his  garments 
imparted  the  virtue,  not  knowing  that  his 
whole  aura  enfolded  them  like  a  holy  efflu- 
ence. 

There  is  a  touching  story  of  one  thus 
healed. 

"A  certain  woman  which  had  an  issue  of 
blood  twelve  years,  and  had  suffered  many 
things  of  many  physicians,  and  had  spent  all 
that  she  had,  and  was  nothing  bettered,  but 
rather  grew  worse;  when  she  had  heard  of 
Jesus  came  in  the  press  behind,  and  touched 
his  garment :  for  she  said,  If  I  may  touch  but 
his  clothes,  I  shall  be  whole.  And  straight- 
way the  fountain  of  her  blood  was  dried  up : 
and  she  felt  in  her  bodv  that  she  was  healed 


170          THE  LIGHT  OF  MEN 

of  that  plague.  And  Jesus,  immediately 
knowing  in  himself  that  virtue  had  gone  out 
of  him,  turned  him  about  in  the  press,  and 
said,  Who  touched  my  clothes?  And  his 
disciples  said  unto  him,  Thou  seest  the  mul- 
titude thronging  thee,  and  sayest  thou,  Who 
touched  me  ?  And  he  looked  round  about  to 
see  her  that  had  done  this  thing.  But  the 
woman,  fearing  and  trembling,  knowing 
what  was  done  in  her,  came  and  fell  down 
before  him  and  told  him  all  the  truth.  And 
he  said  unto  her,  Daughter,  thy  faith  hath 
made  thee  whole;  go  in  peace."  (Mark  V 
25-34) 

We  read  of  many  instances  where  lunatics 
were  brought  to  Jesus  for  healing.  These 
patients  are  always  described  as  being  "pos- 
sessed by  a  devil"  —  "unclean  spirits"  is  an- 
other name  given  — ;  the  Master  casts  out 
"the  devil,"  and  the  patient  then  becomes 
whole ;  that  is,  normal. 

Modern  psychology  is  beginning  to  suspect 
what  the  student  of  esoteric  science  already 
knows  as  fact ;  viz,  that  a  large  proportion  of 
cases  of  insanity  are  due  to  obsession,  pure 


JESUS  OF  NAZARETH         171 

and  simple.  Indeed  so  subtle  and  so  wide- 
spread is  interference  from  the  psychic,  or 
astral,  plane  that  it  would  not  be  easy  with- 
out greater  knowledge  to  draw  definite  lines 
in  the  matter.  Much  has  been  written  rela- 
tive to  the  objective  and  subjective  mind  of 
man,  and  we  know  that  the  objective  mind  — 
call  it  reason  if  you  will — is  the  master  of 
the  house,  and  that,  if  its  dominion  is  dis- 
turbed or  overset,  there  will  be  trouble ;  for 
the  subjective  mind  seems  to  be  quite  void  of 
will,  and  to  be  at  the  mercy  of  any  occult 
current.  It  is  as  if  the  driver  of  a  chariot 
had  dropped  the  reins,  and  another  has 
caught  them  up,  and  is  driving  willy-nilly 
more  or  less  wildly. 

In  positive  insanity  the  objective  mind,  the 
master  of  the  house,  has,  for  one  cause  or 
another,  abdicated.  In  this  case  one,  or  per- 
haps more,  of  the  myriads  of  irresponsible 
discarnate  spirits  always  waiting  and  eager 
for  a  chance  to  function  upon  the  objective 
plane  will  rush  in  and  take  possession  — 
sometimes  intermittent,  sometimes  entire. 
The  master  of  the  house  becomes  a  bondsman 


172  THE  LIGHT  OF  MEN 

as  it  were.,  In  human  society  if  one  party 
usurps  the  rights  of  another  the  strong  arm 
of  the  law  steps  in  and  evicts  the  intruder. 
Just  so  did  the  potent  command  of  the  Mas- 
ter evict  the  spirit-intruder,  and  restore  the 
rightful  tenant  to  his  own. 

In  reading  the  gospels  one  cannot  but  be 
struck  by  the  interchangeable  manner  in 
which  Jesus  uses  the  terms  "sickness"  and 
4 'sin,"  as  if  he  regarded  them  as  one  and  the 
same  thing.  Again  and  again  he  dismisses 
the  healed  patient  with  the  words,  "Go  and 
sin  no  more ;"  or  "Go  and  sin  no  more  lest  a 
worse  thing  come  unto  thee. ' '  Sometimes  he 
merely  says  to  the  patient,  "Thy  sins  be  for- 
given thee." 

"And  behold  they  brought  to  him  a  man 
sick  of  the  palsy,  lying  on  a  bed :  and  Jesus 
seeing  their  faith  said  unto  the  sick  of  the 
palsy,  Son  be  of  good  cheer ;  thy  sins  be  for- 
given thee.  And  behold,  certain  of  the 
scribes  said  within  themselves,  This  man 
blasphemeth.  And  Jesus,  knowing  their 
thoughts,  said,  Wherefore  think  ye  evil  in 
your  hearts  ?  For  whether  is  easier  to  say, 


JESUS  OF  NAZARETH         173 

Thy  sins  be  forgiven  thee,  or  to  say,  Arise 
and  walk?  But  that  ye  may  know  that  the 
Son  of  man  hath  power  on  earth  to  forgive 
sins,  (then  saith  he  to  the  sick  of  the  palsy) 
Arise,  take  up  thy  bed  and  go  unto  thine 
house.  And  he  arose  and  departed  to  his 
house."  (Matt.  IX,  2-7.) 

Now  we  know  that  the  Law  of  Causation 
is  the  most  absolutely  fixed  and  fundamental 
law  in  the  universe.  The  whole  bulwark  of 
human  evolution  and  human  destiny  is  built 
upon  it.  Conduct  at  one  period  of  a  man's 
development  conditions  his  status  in  another. 
Man  is  made  a  creature  of  free  will  within 
the  law,  but  the  law  is  inviolable,  and  de- 
mands that  every  infraction  —  physical, 
moral,  and  spiritual  —  be  atoned  for  to  the 
full  in  some  incarnation.  All  adversity  then, 
whether  bodily  or  other,  is  the  effect  of  this 
cosmic  debt,  brought  over  from  previous  in- 
carnations, and  which  the  individual  has  at 
one  time  or  another  to  equate.  Jesus  used 
existent  laws  to  work  his  miracles,  but  it  is 
presumable  that  not  even  an  Avatar  could  — 
or  would  —  cause  an  infraction  of  that  great 


174          THE  LIGHT  OF  MEN 

basic  principle  upon  which  the  universe  is 
built.  How  then  could  Jesus  forgive  sins? 
Now  it  may  very  well  happen  that  an  afflicted 
soul  has  "suffered  enough,"  as  they  say  in 
the  east;  that  is,  the  cosmic  debt  has  been 
virtually  equated.  The  Master,  knowing 
this,  may  then  pronounce  the  word  of  free- 
dom, of  manumission ;  even  as  the  warden  of 
a  prison  when  a  prisoner  has  served  his  sen- 
tence opens  the  door  and  bids  the  man  go 
free.  It  may  well  have  been  that  some  of 
those  whom  Jesus  healed  had  not  expiated 
fully,  and  would  therefore  have  to  meet  the 
rest  of  the  account  at  some  other  time.  This 
healing  would  then  be  only  a  partial,  or  tem- 
porary, remission  of  sentence.  The  student 
who  really  understands  the  recondite  side  of 
these  things  does  not  crave  any  temporary 
remittance,  but  desires  only  the  opportunity 
to  expiate  fully,  so  as  to  be  truly  spiritually 
free.  We  must  however  not  lose  sight  of  the 
fact  that  a  sudden  spiritual  uplift,  or  en- 
lightenment—  such  as  might  have  come  to 
some  of  those  in  contact  with  Jesus  —  a  real 
moment  of  illumination  which  could  lift  a 


JESUS  OF  NAZARETH         175 

man  as  it  were  to  a  pinnacle  of  vision  and 
reveal  to  him  things  as  they  are  in  spirit, 
would  be  like  a  fire  —  a  purgative  fire  —  and 
would  be  capable  of  blotting  out  at  one  sweep 
a  large  extent  of  that  man's  cosmic  debt. 
Thus  frequently  the  Master  says  to  one  and 
another,  "Thy  faith  hath  saved  thee;  go  in 
peace. ' ' 

We  come  now  to  the  most  impressive  of  the 
miracles  of  Jesus;  the  restoring  to  life  of 
those  who  were  already  dead.  We  have  al- 
ready seen  that  in  sleep,29  or  in  long-suspend- 
ed animation  of  any  kind,  the  soul  withdraws 
consciousness  into  its  more  ethereal  vehicles 
and  escapes  from  the  body ;  but  it  remains  at- 
tached thereto  by  an  impalpable  astral  fila- 
ment, and  will  at  an  instant's  notice  return 
into  its  tenement,  and  take  up  the  life  of  ob- 
jective consciousness  again.*  At  death  this 
filament  is  finally  and  definitely  severed ;  but 
it  is  not  severed  as  soon  as  we  suppose ;  not 
at  the  moment  of  physical  dissolution,  but 
later  —  in  some  cases  considerably  later.  In 
southern  countries  interment  follows  very 

*  See  note  21. 


176          THE  LIGHT  OF  MEN 

close  upon  dissolution,  and,  except  in  one  in- 
stance, those  whom  Jesus  recalled  to  life  had 
not  been  dead  long.  The  filament  was  then 
not  definitively  severed.  Calling  over  it  as 
over  a  telephone,  the  command  of  the  Master 
summoned  the  escaped  spirit  back  into  its 
discarded  tenement,  at  the  same  time  stimu- 
lating the  eclipsed  faculties  so  that  normal 
health  was  spontaneously  restored. 

And  last  wonder  of  all,  comes  the  solemn 
and  thrilling  story  of  the  raising  of  the  dead 
Lazarus;  the  consummation  of  phenomena, 
which  demonstrated  to  all  men  that  the  Mas- 
ter wielded  power  in  more  worlds  than  one. 

Lazarus  dwelt  in  Bethany  with  his  two  sis- 
ters, Mary  and  Martha.  All  three  were 
close  and  esteemed  friends  of  the  Master, 
who  had  often  sojourned  with  them.  When 
Lazarus  fell  sick  Jesus  was  in  another  place, 
some  distance  away;  yet,  although  notified 
of  the  grievous  malady  of  his  friend,  "he 
abode  two  days  still  in  the  same  place  where 
he  was."  He  appears  to  have  done  this  de- 
liberately and  of  intent,  and  he  tells  his 
companions,  "This  sickness  is  not  unto 


JESUS  OF  NAZARETH         177 

death,  but  for  the  glory  of  God,  that  the  Son 
of  God  might  be  glorified  thereby."  Later 
he  says  to  them,  "Our  friend  Lazarus  sleep- 
eth ;  but  I  go  that  I  may  awake  him  out  of 
sleep.  Then  said  his  disciples,  Lord,  if  he 
sleep  he  shall  do  well.  .  .  Then  said  Jesus 
unto  them  plainly,  Lazarus  is  dead.  And  I 
am  glad  for  your  sakes  that  I  was  not  there, 
to  the  intent  ye  may  believe ;  nevertheless  let 
us  go  unto  him."  John  XI,  4-15) 

Then  Jesus,  accompanied  by  the  disciples, 
journeyed  back  into  Judaea.  Martha,  hear- 
ing of  his  approach,  ran  forth  to  meet  him 
crying,  "Lord,  if  thou  hadst  been  here  my 
brother  had  not  died.  .  .  Jesus  saith  unto 
her,  Thy  brother  shall  rise  again. ' '  But  she 
misunderstood  him.  "I  know  that  he  shall 
rise  again  in  the  resurrection  at  the  last 
day."  To  which  the  Master  responded  mys- 
tically, "I  am  the  resurrection  and  the  life." 
Martha  hastened  to  summon  her  sister. 
"The  Master  is  come  and  calleth  for  thee. 
As  soon  as  she  heard  that  she  arose  quickly 
and  came  unto  him."  Mary  also,  falling  at 
his  feet,  uttered  the  implied  reproach,  "Lord, 


178          THE  LIGHT  OF  MEN 

if  thou  hadst  been  here,  my  brother  had  not 
died."  And  Jesus,  for  very  tenderness  — 
for  he  knew  well  what  was  about  to  hap- 
pen— mingled  his  tears  with  hers.  Then  he 
asked  to  be  led  to  the  sepulchre,  a  rough  hill- 
cavern  covered  with  a  slab  of  stone,  as  was 
usual  among  the  Jews.  He  desired  that  the 
stone  should  be  removed,  but  Martha  ob- 
jected. "Lord,  by  this  time  he  stinketh,  for 
he  hath  been  dead  four  days."  But  the 
Master  rebuked  her  unbelief,  and  reminded 
her  of  his  pledge  that  her  brother  should  rise 
again.  Then,  as  they  rolled  away  the  stone 
from  the  mouth  of  the  cavern,  Jesus  deliv- 
ered a  sublime  prayer. 

"And  Jesus  lifted  up  his  eyes,  and  said, 
Father,  I  thank  thee  that  thou  hast  heard 
me :  and  I  knew  that  thou  hearest  me  always, 
but  because  of  the  people  which  stand  by  I 
said  it  that  they  may  believe  that  thou  hast 
sent  me." 

Concentrating  all  his  forces  into  one  can- 
dent  focal  point,  the  Master  commanded  the 
life-currents  to  return  into  the  flaccid  limbs, 
the  fires  of  the  spirit  to  kindle  anew  the  flow- 
ing blood  in  the  veins  and  to  set  in  motion 


JESUS  OP  NAZARETH         179 

every  stagnated  function  of  the  living  organ- 
ism. Then  he  cried  with  a  loud  voice : 

"Lazarus,  come  forth! 

And  he  that  was  dead  came  forth,  bound 
hand  and  foot  with  grave  clothes:  and  his 
face  was  bound  about  with  a  napkin.  Jesus 
saith  unto  them:  Loose  him,  and  let  him 
go."  (John  XI,  20-44)  In  aU  probability 
this  raising  from  the  dead  was  of  the  same 
character  as  the  others;  and,  although  a 
much  longer  interval  than  usual  had  elapsed 
since  dissolution,  the  astral  filament  had  not 
been  definitively  severed.  The  whole  context 
would  go  to  substantiate  this. 

It  was  this  superlative  miracle  —  this  re- 
calling of  an  Ego  from  the  mysterious 
abysses  beyond  the  delimitations  of  all  sense- 
perception —  which,  creating,  as  it  did,  a 
perfect  ferment  of  excitement  among  all 
who  had  witnessed  it  or  who  heard  of  it  and 
flocked  to  behold  the  resurrected  man,  fanned 
the  virulent  hostility  of  the  sacerdotal  party 
to  fever-pitch,  and  precipitated  the  final 
catastrophe  of  Calvary. 


180          THE  LIGHT  OF  MEN 

"The  first  day  of  the  week  cometh  Mary 
Magdalene  early,  when  it  was  yet  dark,  unto 
the  sepulchre,  and  seeth  the  stone  taken  away 
from  the  sepulchre.  Then  she  runneth,  and 
cometh  to  Simon  Peter,  and  to  the  other  dis- 
ciple whom  Jesus  loved,  and  saith  unto  them, 
They  have  taken  away  the  Lord  out  of  the 
sepulchre,  and  we  know  not  where  they  have 
laid  him.  Peter  therefore  went  forth,  and 
that  other  disciple,  and  came  to  the  sepulchre. 
So  they  ran  both  together :  and  the  other  dis- 
ciple did  outrun  Peter  and  came  first  to  the 
sepulchre.  And  he,  stooping  down  and  look- 
ing in,  saw  the  linen  clothes  lying ;  yet  went  he 
not  in.  Then  cometh  Simon  Peter  following 
him,  and  went  into  the  sepulchre,  and  seeth 
the  linen  clothes  lie;  and  the  napkin  which 
was  about  his  head,  not  lying  with  the  linen 
clothes,  but  wrapped  together  in  a  place  by 
itself.  Then  went  in  also  that  other  disciple 
which  came  first  to  the  sepulchre,  and  he  saw 
and  believed.  For  as  yet  they  knew  not  the 
scripture  that  he  must  rise  again  from  the 
dead.  Then  the  disciples  went  away  again 
unto  their  own  home. 


JESUS  OF  NAZARETH         181 

"But  Mary  stood  without  at  the  sepulchre, 
weeping :  and  as  she  wept  she  stooped  down 
and  looked  into  the  sepulchre,  and  seeth  two 
angels  in  white,  sitting,  the  one  at  the  head 
and  the  other  at  the  feet,  where  the  body  of 
Jesus  had  lain.  And  they  say  unto  her, 
Woman,  why  weepest  thou  ?  She  saith  unto 
them,  Because  they  have  taken  away  my 
Lord,  and  I  know  not  where  they  have  laid 
him.  And  when  she  had  thus  said,  she 
turned  herself  back,  and  saw  Jesus  stand- 
ing, and  knew  not  that  it  was  Jesus.  And 
Jesus  saith  unto  her,  Woman,  why  weepest 
thou?  whom  seekest  thou?  She,  supposing 
him  to  be  the  gardener,  saith  unto  him,  Sir, 
if  thou  have  borne  him  hence,  tell  me  where 
thou  hast  laid  him,  and  I  will  take  him  away. 
Jesus  saith  unto  her,  Mary.  She  turned  her- 
self, and  saith  unto  him,  Rabboni,  which  is  to 
say,  Master.  Jesus  saith  unto  her,  Touch  me 
not :  for  I  am  not  yet  ascended  to  my  Father : 
but  go  to  my  brethren,  and  say  unto  them,  I 
ascend  unto  my  Father  and  your  Father,  and 
to  my  God  and  your  God.  Mary  Magdalene 
came  and  told  the  disciples  that  she  had  seen 


182          THE  LIGHT  OF  MEN 

the  Lord,  and  that  he  had  spoken  these  things 
unto  her.  Then  the  same  day  at  evening,  be- 
ing the  first  day  of  the  week,  when  the  doors 
were  shut  where  the  disciples  were  assembled 
for  fear  of  the  Jews,  came  Jesus  and  stood 
in  the  midst,  and  saith  unto  them,  Peace  be 
unto  you.  And  when  he  had  so  said,  he 
shewed  unto  them  his  hands  and  his  side. 
Then  were  the  disciples  glad  when  they  saw 
the  Lord."  (John  XX  1-20) 

Theological  Christianity  has  for  centuries 
pinned  itself  to,  and  revolved  around,  the 
postulate  that  Jesus,  after  death,  appeared 
to  the  disciples  in  his  dense,  or  physical, 
body ;  but  this  was  not  the  belief  at  first.  The 
spiritual  leaders  and  teachers  of  the  early 
church  —  themselves,  many  of  them,  mystic 
Initiates  —  knew  better.  This  idea  grew  up 
later,  and  was  the  outcome  of  crudeness  and 
ignorance  in  the  new  races  carrying  forward 
the  banners  of  the  new  faith;  peoples  who 
could  not  conceive  of  any  method  of  appear- 
ance other  than  the  corporeal.  Jesus  did  not 
appear  to  Mary  and  to  the  disciples  in  his 
corporeal  form,  but  in  his  subtle,  or  astral, 


JESUS  OF  NAZARETH         183 

form.  This  is  a  fact  of  which  all  those  who 
have  made  a  study  of  occult  matters  are  well 
aware. 

Some  explanation  of  the  astral  body  has 
already  been  made,*  and  the  fact  stated  that 
it  corresponds  in  general  appearance  with 
the  dense  or  physical  body,  but  that  it  is 
ethereal,  intangible,  and  is  not  perceivable 
by  the  external  senses.  Those  who  are  able 
to  perceive  astral  presences  do  so  with  the 
astral,  or  inward  senses,  these  reporting  such 
facts  to  the  brain  in  exactly  the  same  manner 
as  the  material  senses  do ;  so  that  many  nat- 
ural psychics  —  until  they  have  been  trained 
to  do  so  —  are  apt  not  to  differentiate  the 
facts  received  from  the  subjective  world  (or 
plane  of  consciousness)  from  those  received 
from  the  objective  world  (or  plane  of  con- 
sciousness). 

Very  likely  it  was  the  spiritual  stress  of 
the  previous  days  which  rendered  these  loved 
and  loving  disciples  sensitive.  For  it  is  only 
when  the  soul  has  passed  through  some 
supreme  crisis,  some  divine  disrupting  emo- 

*  See  note  21. 


184          THE  LIGHT  OF  MEN 

tion,  that  the  veils  of  flesh  are  torn,  and  the 
eyes  of  the  spirit  become  fitted  to  receive  the 
higher  vision.  Mary  Magdalene's  psychic 
apperceptions  were  not  complete.  She  did 
not  at  first  recognise  Jesus,  although  she  was 
able  to  perceive  him ;  but  when  he  addressed 
her  personally  as  Mary,  her  subtle  senses 
were  quickened,  and  she  knew  him.  The 
disciples  with  whom  he  walked  at  Emmaus 
probably  went  through  the  same  subtle-quick- 
ening process  beneath  the  power  of  his  spirit- 
ual radiation. 

The  gospels  report  several  instances  in 
which  Jesus  appeared  to  his  disciples,  gen- 
erally within  closed  doors-,  a  proof,  if  any 
were  needed,  that  it  was  in  his  astral  body 
that  he  manifested  himself;  for  walls  and 
bolts  and  bars  present  no  impediment  to  the 
passage  of  this  ethereal  vehicle.  Probably 
also  the  transcendence  of  the  personality  of 
the  Master  rendered  the  materialisation 
much  more  vivid  and  like  the  corporeal  pres- 
ence than  is  the  case  with  ordinary  (so- 
called)  apparitions.  The  episode  of  Thomas 
Didymus  is  often  alleged  as  proof  that  Jesus 


JESUS  OF  NAZARETH         185 

wore  a  solid  body,  but  when  we  realise  that 
the  senses  by  which  Thomas  made  his  investi- 
gations were  psychic  senses,  and  that  the 
whole  episode  took  place  within  the  astral 
plane  of  consciousness,  this  argument  loses 
all  cogency.  If  the  form  in  which  the  Mas- 
ter manifested  himself  had  not  been  an  astral 
form,  there  is  no  reason  why  the  whole  world 
should  not  have  seen  him,  instead  of  a  se- 
lected few.  Also  note  that  he  did  not  appear 
in  his  grave-clothes,  which  were  all  that  he 
had  in  the  sepulchre.  These  were  left  there, 
and  were  seen  by  Peter  and  John.  He  ap- 
peared garbed  as  of  ordinary.  This  bears  out 
the  astral  presentment ;  for  all  astral  appear- 
ances manifest  in  the  guise  most  familiar  to, 
and  therefore  most  cognisable  by,  those 
whom  they  desire  to  have  see  them. 

What  then  became  of  the  dense,  or  physical 
body  of  Jesus  —  the  body  which  had  been  laid 
in  the  tomb? 

Attention  has  earlier  been  called  to  the 
idea  that  the  human  body  of  Jesus  was  of  a 
more  purified  and  ethereal  substance  than 
that  of  the  ordinary  man.  Probably  it  con- 


186          THE  LIGHT  OF  MEN 

tinued  to  grow  ever  a  more  refined  and  spirit- 
ualised vehicle  as  his  life  in  it  progressed, 
so  that  at  the  time  of  his  death  it  was  as  tenu- 
ous a  shell  as  it  could  well  be  and  yet  con- 
tinue to  function  in  the  objective  plane. 
Jesus  possessed  entire  dominion  over  the 
laws  of  construction,  destruction,  and  re- 
construction forever  going  on  in  this  com- 
plex world ;  therefore  he  possessed  entire  do- 
minion over  that  shell — his  body.  Does  he 
not  say  ?  "I  have  power  to  lay  it  down,  and 
I  have  power  to  take  it  up."  (John  X  18) 
Therefore  he  had  ample  power  to  consume 
and  to  disperse  the  atoms  of  which  it  was 
composed  into  the  universal  element,  or 
storehouse,  of  the  ether;  and  so  —  as  a 
form — it  would  cease  to  exist.  Or — ac- 
cording to  another  esoteric  explanation — he 
could  heighten  the  vibration  of  its  constit- 
uent atoms,  so  that  they  ceased  entirely  to 
be  dense,  and  became  etheric  or  astral ;  thus 
becoming  invisible  and  intangible  to  the  out- 
ward senses  of  men.  To  accept  these  things 
is  of  course  to  shatter  one  of  the  bulwarks  of 
formal  Christian  Theology  which  claims  that 


JESUS  OF  NAZARETH         187 

the  appearance  of  the  Master  (supposedly 
in  the  body)  was  the  final  and  vital  proof  of 
the  immortality  of  the  soul ;  which  is,  by  im- 
plication, to  say  that,  in  an  infinitely  old 
world,  through  countless  decillions  of  human 
lives  upon  it,  the  soul  of  man  had  waited  un- 
til that  moment  in  darkness  and  uncertainty 
for  this  assurance ! 

It  was  not  necessary  that,  either  by  his 
"resurrection"  or  his  "ascension,"  Jesus 
should  make  conclusive  the  immortality  of 
the  soul.  The  deeper  side  of  the  world  had 
always  known  it.  Every  gnostic  (knower) 
from  the  morning  of  Time  has  known  it  at 
first  hand.*  In  all  ages  there  have  existed 
more  or  less  extensive  groups  of  Illuminati — 
Initiates  we  have  elsewhere  called  them  — 
who,  one  might  say,  lived  in  immortality, 
that  is,  the  spiritual  circuit  is  so  powerful  in 
their  consciousness  that  physical  death  is  as 
nothing  to  them ;  —  a  momentary  episode  in 
an  eternal  existent  consciousness.  From 
these  great  souls  the  masses  have  caught  a 
kindling  radiance  of  the  truths  of  being. 

*  See  Chapter  I. 


188          THE  LIGHT  OF  MEN 

The  surety  of  immortality  is  basic  in  every 
great  root-religion  which  the  world  has  ever 
known.  The  student  has  only  to  search  and 
he  will  find  it  in  the  most  ancient  of  human 
records.  In  many  he  will  find  it  sketched 
with  horizons  infinitely  vaster  and  more 
splendid  than  those  which  formal  theological 
Christianity  has  succeeded  in  presenting  to 
its  adherents. 

What  then  does  the  resurrection  mean? 

Like  many  another  much-misinterpreted 
passage,  this  is  a  symbolic  term,  and  refers 
directly,  not  to  any  material  happening,  but 
to  an  interior  experience.  Very  reverently 
and  awesomely  must  we  tread  here  for  we 
are  upon  holy  ground.  Indeed  very  little  of 
the  "[Inexpressible  Mystery  will  it  be  possible 
to  put  into  concrete  words ;  only  an  outline,  a 
suggestion,  can  be  attempted  in  these  brief 
pages. 

The  subject  of  the  nature  and  mission  of 
an  Avatar  has  been  touched  upon  in  a  pre- 
vious chapter,  and  it  need  not  be  repeated. 
Suffice  it  to  say  here  that  an  Avatar  is  a  form 
of  the  Divine  Essence,  Self -limited,  that  It 


JESUS  OF  NAZARETH         189 

may  come  within  the  range  of  the  human 
comprehension.  That  great  Entity,  that 
"Radiant  One,"  whom,  in  his  earthly  pre- 
sentment we  know  as  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  in- 
carnated in  the  flesh,  and  assumed  for  a  sea- 
son the  outward  limitations  of  the  flesh  in 
order  that  he  might  come  into  direct  touch 
with  that  unenlightened  (and  therefore  un- 
redeemed) humanity  which  he  desired  to  lift 
out  of  carnal  darkness  and  bondage  into  a 
greater  light  and  freedom. 

The  essential  mission  of  this  Master  was  to 
bring  the  Mystery  of  the  Divine  Immanence, 
Universality  and  Oneness  close  to  man.  He 
unlocked  the  treasury  of  spiritual  potentiali- 
ties—  that  treasury  for  ages  arcanely  and 
hieratically  guarded  —  and  with  lavish  hand 
flung  broadcast  the  priceless  seeds  of  the  un- 
derstanding of  spiritual  life,  aware  that  a 
large  proportion  would  fall  upon  arid  minds, 
or  be  choked  by  worldly  weeds,  or  be  de- 
voured by  the  passions  of  men;  but  also 
knowing  that  into  the  heart  which  was 
ready — the  "good  ground"  —  it  would  fall 
gratefully  and  spring  up  into  a  glorious  and 


190          THE  LIGHT  OP  MEN 

imperishable  flowering.  So  brief  was  that 
public  ministry  that  the  work  was  not  half 
accomplished  —  nay,  perhaps  could  not  have 
been  accomplished  through  exoteric  channels 
alone,  or  without  an  appeal  through  subtler 
forces;  and  therefore  it  was  prolonged  be- 
yond the  physical  death  of  that  sense-form 
which  he  had  worn  before  the  eyes  of  men. 

Pristine,  that  is  to  say  Ante-Nicene,  Chris- 
tianity concentrated  itself  upon,  and  mar- 
shalled all  its  forces  around,  the  elucidation 
of  one  noumenal  truth.  It  received,  and  en- 
deavoured to  understand,  to  assimilate  and  to 
live  in,  the  spirit  of  that  Mystery  which  the 
Master  had  brought  so  close  to  it ;  even  as  the 
first  disciples  received,  and  endeavoured  to 
assimilate  and  to  live  in  it. 

We  recollect  that  while  he  was  still  in  the 
flesh  he  could  not,  even  to  his  chosen  com- 
panions30—  those  who  from  the  first  had 
heard  and  obeyed  the  divine  call  —  unfold  the 
ultimate  of  the  truths  which  he  had  to  teach. 
They  were  not  ready.  They  were  not  yet  suf- 
ficiently unfolded  to  the  point  where  the  ma- 
terial webs  which  still  clouded  the  spiritual 


JESUS  OF  NAZARETH         191 

consciousness  could  be  torn  away.  He  says 
to  them,  "I  have  yet  many  things  to  say  unto 
you,  but  ye  cannot  bear  them  now."  (John 
XVI  12)  And  again  in  the  Acts  of  the 
Apostles  we  read,  "But  ye  shall  receive 
power  after  that  the  Holy  Ghost  is  come  up- 
on you."  (Acts  1-8)  It  was  through  the 
awful  and  desolating  hours  of  the  Master's 
Passion — hours  surcharged  with  intense 
and  rending  emotion — that  the  final  detach- 
ment and  purification  came  to  them.  For 
the  shock,  the  suffusion,  consequent  upon 
some  profound  crucial  and  solemnising  emo- 
tion, will  often  superinduce  radical  psychol- 
ogical changes ;  and  in  the  abysses  of  the  soul 
new  polarisations  will  take  place.  Old  bonds 
are  broken,  old  boundaries  become  sub- 
merged. The  solid  earth  seems  to  shake  and 
slip  from  beneath  one's  feet,  and  the  spirit  is 
swept  by  some  mighty  tide,  it  knoweth  not 
whither,  into  immeasurable  immensity — 
darkness  —  mystery.  But  this  darkness  lies 
upon  the  threshold  of  the  Great  Light. 

Even  after  this  manner  were  the  souls  of 
the  disciples  swept  and  whelmed.    They  were 


192  THE  LIGHT  OF  MEN 

as  it  were  lifted  out  of  themselves  —  lifted 
out  of  the  environment  of  sense-perception 
in  which  experience  had  hitherto  functioned, 
and  so  prepared  for  the  awakening  of  new 
and  finer  faculties.  And  then  in  a  moment, 
in  the  twinkling  of  an  eye,  by  the  fire  of  his 
own  spirit,  the  Master  dissolved  the  last  im- 
peding veil,  and  flung  open  to  them  the 
doors  to  the  chambers  of  the  higher  con- 
sciousness ;  which  was  in  effect  the  conscious- 
ness to  each  man  of  his  own  higher  Self. 
"And  he  breathed  on  them,  and  saith  unto 
them,  Receive  ye  the  Holy  Ghost."  (John 
XX  22) 

Very  possibly  the  thrilling  narration  in  the 
second  chapter  of  Acts  is  another  version  of 
this  same  happening ;  or  it  may  refer  to  some 
further  illumination,  for  such  experiences 
would  be  likely  to  be  not  solitary  but  cumula- 
tive. 

"And  when  the  day  of  Pentecost  was  fully 
come,  they  were  all  with  one  accord  in  one 
place.  And  suddenly  there  came  a  sound 
from  heaven,  as  of  a  rushing,  mighty  wind, 
and  it  filled  all  the  house  where  they  were 


JESUS  OF  NAZARETH         193 

sitting.  And  there  appeared  unto  them 
cloven  tongues  like  as  of  fire,  and  it  sat  up- 
on each  of  them.  And  they  were  all  filled 
with  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  began  to  speak 
with  other  tongues  as  the  Spirit  gave  them 
utterance."  (Acts  II  1-4)  Such  illumina- 
tion could  be  none  other  than  the  baptism 
"with  the  Holy  Ghost  and  with  fire,"  an- 
nounced by  John ;  the  coming  to  them  of  the 
Cosmic  Consciousness;  an  experience  the 
majesty  and  wonder  of  which  may  scarcely 
be  conceived  except  by  those  who  have  in 
some  measure  approached  the  adumbration 
thereof. 

The  disciples  were  now  fitting  instruments 
to  receive  and  to  disseminate  the  teaching  of 
the  Eternal  Wisdom.31  Recorded  in  the  gos- 
pels are  a  number  of  instances  where  the 
Master  showed  himself  to  the  eleven,  and 
Paul  gives  us  an  instance  when  "he  was  seen 
of  above  five  hundred  of  the  brethren  at 
once. "  (I  Cor.  XV  6)  Most  likely  these  rec- 
ords are  merely  notes,  or  indications,  of 
many  such  events. 

"And  there  are  also  many  other  things 


194          THE  LIGHT  OF  MEN 

which  Jesus  did,  the  which,  if  they  should  be 
written  every  one,  I  suppose  that  even  the 
world  itself  could  not  contain  the  books  that 
should  be  written. "  (John  XXI  25) 

According  to  the  accepted  tradition  drawn 
from  the  gospels,  these  appearances  covered 
a  period  of  forty  days,  but  there  exist  occult 
records  of  a  much  longer  time.  These  state 
that  for  eleven  years*  the  Master  remained 
in  contact  with  his  elect,  directing,  develop- 
ing, and  illuminating  them.  A  great  deal  of 
this  instruction  would  naturally  be  oral,  but, 
for  the  higher  knowledge,  there  would  be 
trance-initiations ;  for  it  is  only  in  the  super- 
conscious  state  that  may  be  gathered  that 
deepest  experience  which  makes  of  all  spirit- 
ual knowledge  a  living,  burning  reality. 
This  is  "the  Wisdom  of  God  in  a  Mystery" 
of  which  Paul  speaks. 

There  is  good  internal  evidence — borne 
out  by  many  allusions  in  the  Patristic  writ- 
ings and  by  esoteric  records — that  Mystery- 
initiations  were  practised  within  the  early 
church;  that  the  so-called  Christian  Myste- 

*Cf.    Askew  Codex;  British  Museum. 


JESUS  OF  NAZARETH         195 

ries  formed  an  organic  centre  for  the  teach- 
ings of  that  church ;  that  in  fact  they  endured 
as  long  as  there  remained  within  the  pale  of 
the  orthodox,  or  official  church  any  hiero- 
phants  of  a  sufficiently  exalted  order  to  con- 
duct them,  and  any  catechumens  of  a  suffi- 
ciently purified  character  to  enter  into  them.32 

What  did  the  Master  teach  his  disciples  ? 

Mystery.     Being.     Cosmogenesis. 

He  revealed  to  them  the  essential  nature 
of  his  own  being  and  the  potential  nature  of 
theirs.  He  unfolded  to  them  the  supreme 
and  glorious  mystery  of  Sonship,  and  in 
what  manner  he  was  the  Son  of  God ;  and  he 
taught  them  how  they  might  climb  the  spirit- 
ual heights  and  become  also  Sons  of  God. 
The  mystery  of  Christ-hood,  of  Sonship,  is 
something  which  none  but  the  perfected  Ego 
may  really  fully  know ;  yet  this  we  can  know, 
that  it  is  the  Mystery  of  " becoming"  —  of 
redemption  —  of  At-one-ment. 

In  the  third  chapter  of  John,  verse  16,  we 
find  these  words : — 

"For  God  so  loved  the  world  that  he  gave 
his  Only-begotten  Son,  that  whosoever  be- 


196          THE  LIGHT  OF  MEN 

lieveth  in  him  should  not  perish,  but  have 
everlasting  life." 

The  same  term,  "  Only-begotten, "  is  put 
into  the  mouth  of  John  the  Baptist  (cf.  John 
I  14-18)  in  speaking  of  Jesus.  The  Greek 
text  has  here  been  mis-translated,  giving  rise 
to  a  perverted  connotation.  Mono  genes  does 
not  mean  "only-begotten;"  it  means  "alone- 
become.  ' '  The  Monogenic,  or  alone-become, 
state  is  the  fulness  and  blissf ulness  of  perfec- 
tion. 

We  are  all  in  process  of  "becoming"  or 
evolving,  but  this  process  is  a  long  evolution- 
ary movement,  spanning  a  cosmic  cycle.  This 
"Radiant  One,"  our  Master,  by  virtue  of  be- 
ing of  the  Ultimate  Essence  —  that  is,  One 
made  perfect  in  some  other,  anterior  Cosmic 
cycle,  and  therefore  now  one  with  the 
Father  —  was  outside  of  those  laws  which 
govern  the  destinies  of  the  human  family. 
He  was  beyond  evolution  as  we  understand 
it.  Therefore  he  was  at  that  time  the  only 
Alone-become,  or  Son  existent  upon  the 
planet.  The  Son  is  always  "in  the  bosom  of 


JESUS  OP  NAZARETH         197 

the  Father:"  (i.e.,  in  God.)  The  interplay 
of  spiritual  currents  is  uninterrupted. 

"No  man  knoweth  the  Son  but  the  Father ; 
neither  knoweth  any  man  the  Father  save  the 
Son."  (Matt.  XI  27)  Only  Spirit  may  en- 
ter wholly  into  Spirit. 

"I  and  the  Father  are  one."  (John  X  30) 
In  ultimate  consciousness  there  is  no  sepa- 
rateness. 

In  the  gospels  we  find  the  Master  some- 
times speaking  of  himself  as  ' '  Son  of  man, ' ' 
and  sometimes  as  "Son  of  God."  In  some 
cases  he  appears  to  have  in  mind  the  Incar- 
nation—  the  man,  Jesus;  in  others,  the 
Divine  Essence.  When  he  says  ' '  Foxes  have 
holes,  and  birds  of  the  air  have  nests,  but  the 
Son  of  man  hath  not  where  to  lay  his  head," 
(Matt.  VIII  20)  he  is  clearly  speaking  of  the 
man,  Jesus.  When  he  says,  "Before  Abra- 
ham was  7  am"  (John  VIII  58)  ;  when  he 
says,  "7  am  the  door  of  the  sheep"  (John  X 
7)  ;  when  he  says  "7  am  the  way  and  the 
truth  and  the  life"  (John  XIV  6)  ;  when  he 
says,  "7  give  unto  them  eternal  life ' '  (John  X 


198          THE  LIGHT  OF  MEN 

28)  ;  he  is  not  speaking  from  the  standpoint 
of  any  personality  whatever,  but  is  express- 
ing the  action  of  a  divine  Principle.  The 
personal  pronoun  becomes  the  universal  pro- 
noun, and  expresses  abstract  Being.  We 
must  never  for  one  moment  lose  sight  of  this 
distinction. 

Oftenest  he  refers  to  himself  simply  as 
"the  Son."  The  Son  is  the  ensample  of 
righteousness  and  holiness;  i.e.,  wholeness; 
the  supreme  and  rounded  Ideal.  The  Son 
bears  a  different  name  in  every  one  of  the 
great  Scriptures  of  the  world;  but  he  is  al- 
ways the  archetype  of  perfection.  Jesus 
was  teaching  Jews,  and  therefore  he  used 
the  humanistic  symbolism  familiar  to  the 
popular  mind;  but  Christian  theology  has 
perverted  this  to  connote  the  narrow  ideal  of 
anthropomorphic  Deity — an  ideal  difficult 
to  transcend  or  put  aside.  But  it  must  be 
transcended  and  put  aside  if  we  would  reach 
to  any  concept  of  what  spiritual  life  really 
means. 

The  personal  symbolism  is  not  found  in 
any  of  the  greatest  Oriental  Scriptures, 


JESUS  OF  NAZARETH         199 

where  Deity  is  spoken  of  awesomely  as33 
That,  or  It :  as  if  Illimitable  Being  were,  as 
it  is,  beyond  the  possibility  of  any  concrete 
definition.  It  is  difficult  for  the  mind  to  cor- 
relate this  abstraction  until  we  grasp  the  idea 
that  Creator  and  created  are  in  essence  One. 

It  has  been  a  signal  calamity  for  Chris- 
tianity that,  from  the  time  it  crystallised  in- 
to a  formal  and  official  body,  it  should  have 
focussed  the  Messianic34  hope  in  a  Person 
rather  than  in  an  imperishable  Principle. 
The  man  Jesus,  whom  we  are  wont  to  con- 
sider the  and  only  Christ,  ceased  to  be  from 
the  moment  of  Calvary.  This  is  not  to  say 
that  the  sublimated  Individuality  whom  we 
call  Jesus  does  not  remain  as  a  Centre  of 
Being;  but  it  is  not  for  us  to  probe  to  the 
ultimate  mystery  of  any  Avatar.  We  can- 
not know  how  far  their  radiation  is  con- 
terminous, or  coextensive,  with  God.  The 
Christ-Principle,  which  for  a  space  he  bodied 
forth  concretely  before  the  eyes  of  the  world, 
endures  forever;  is,  was,  and  ever  shall  be. 

At  the  roots  of  every  one  of  us  is  im- 
planted that  Principle,  which  one  may  re- 


200          THE  LIGHT  OF  MEN 

gard  as  an  aspect  of  the  Divine  unfolding. 
It  is  the  Redemptive  Principle ;  Christos,  the 
"anointed;"  hidden  until  we  grow  large 
enough  to  recognise  it ;  inoperative  until  we 
learn  to  make  it  a  dominating  power.  This 
process  of  growth  into  recognition  has  some- 
times been  called  the  Christ-Mystery;  and 
the  Christ-Mystery  is,  in  its  human  corollary, 
the  mystery  of  the  divinisation  of  man. 

11 1  am  the  Light  of  the  world :  he  that  f  ol- 
loweth  me  shall  not  walk  in  darkness,  but 
shaU  have  the  light  of  life."  (John  VIII 
12) 

"In  him  was  life,  and  the  life  was  the  light 
of  men."  (John  I  4) 

The  demiurgic  aspect  of  God — that  is, 
God,  the  Creator — called  by  the  Greeks,  the 
Logos,  (whence  our,  the  Word:  John  II) 
has  two  modes  of  manifestation:  one,  the 
general  one  of  the  Divine  reflecting  through 
nature,  inclusive  of  man ;  and  the  specialised 
manifestation  of  Avatars.  All  that  exists  is 
really  based  in  Spirit,  man  therefore  is  basic- 
ally Spirit;  but  ignorance  (darkness)  and 
the  dominance  of  the  senses  keep  the  great 


JESUS  OF  NAZARETH         201 

Self  veiled  from  the  little  self —  which  lat- 
ter is  all  that  the  unregenerate  man  is  wont 
to  regard  as  himself. 

When  iNjcodemus  came  to  Jesus  secretly 
by  night  to  question  him  concerning  truth, 
the  Master  said  to  him,  "Except  a  man  be 
born  again,  he  cannot  see  the  Kingdom  of 
God."  (John  III  3)  In  another  place  we 
are  told,  "Behold,  the  kingdom  of  God  is 
within  you."  (Luke  XVII  21)  Only  upon 
the  introverted  vision  may  fall  apocalypse. 

To  be  "born  again,"  or  "re-born,"  is  the 
common  mystical  term  for  that  process  of 
thought  and  experience  by  which  the  purified 
soul  passes  from  the  plane  of  polarisation  in 
the  material  into  the  more  advanced  one  of 
polarisation  in  the  unmaterial;  the  passage 
of  consciousness  from  worldliness  to  Godli- 
ness ;  which  is  not  in  any  sense  a  process  of 
intellection,  but  a  transcending  spiritual  ex- 
perience. It  is  indeed  the  process  of  "be- 
coming," referred  to  previously.  The  Greek 
word  translated  "born"  is  elsewhere  (John 
I  12)  translated  "become."  To  be  born 
again  implies  only  metaphorically  the  death 


202          THE  LIGHT  OF  MEN 

of  the  body,  (i.e.,  carnal  man).  As  when 
Paul  exclaims,  "Who  shall  deliver  me  from 
the  body  of  this  death?"  (Rom.  VII 24)  But 
Nicodemus,  still  held  in  the  bondage  of  ma- 
terial things,  could  not  understand.  "How 
can  a  man  be  born  when  he  is  old?"  he  asks. 
To  which  the  Master  makes  always  the  same 
cryptic  answer,  "Verily,  verily  I  say  unto 
thee,  except  a  man  be  born  of  water  and  of 
the  Spirit,  he  cannot  enter  into  the  King- 
dom of  God."  (John  III  5)  "Water"  is 
here  used  in  a  figurative  sense,  meaning  the 
words,  or  ministrations  of  a  sanctified 
teacher.  As  when  the  Master  says,  "Who- 
soever drinketh  of  the  water  that  I  shall  give 
him,  shall  never  thirst ;  but  the  water  that  I 
shall  give  him  shall  be  in  him  a  well  of  water 
springing  up  into  everlasting  life."  (John 
IV  14)  Then,  when  the  neophite  is  ready, 
the  Holy  Spirit  shall  touch  his  soul  with  the 
chrism  of  a  new  life. 

"Marvel  not  that  I  said  ye  must  be  born 
again,"  (John  III  7)  the  Master  continues. 
"That  which  is  born  of  the  flesh  is  flesh,  and 
that  which  is  born  of  the  Spirit  is  Spirit." 


JESUS  OF  NAZARETH         203 

(John  III  6)  The  Sons  of  God  are  born, 
' '  not  of  blood,  nor  of  the  will  of  the  flesh,  nor 
of  the  will  of  Man,  but  of  God."  (John  I 
13) 

''The  wind  bloweth  where  it  listeth  and 
thou  hearest  the  sound  thereof,  but  canst  not 
tell  whence  it  cometh  and  whither  it  goeth: 
so  is  everyone  that  is  born  of  the  Spirit." 
(John  III  8)  The  chrism  must  be  waited 
for  in  a  consecrated  preparation ;  faith,  hu- 
mility, selflessness,  its  hallmarks;  but  only 
the  Supreme  Foreknowledge  may  know  when 
the  soul  of  the  neophite  is  ripe  for  it  and  the 
illumination  shall  come.  In  a  flash,  "as  the 
lightning  cometh  out  of  the  east,  and  is  seen 
even  unto  the  west,"  the  hidden  doors  with- 
in are  flung  wide,  and  the  soul  enters  the 
sanctuary  of  the  Christ.  The  well-springs 
of  being  are,  as  it  were,  new-charged.  Spir- 
itual faculties,  which  in  the  unregenerate 
man  remain  dormant  and  inoperative,  rise 
into  activity  and  transform  the  possessor  in- 
to something  quite  other  than  he  was  before. 

Does  it  not  become  evident  that  resurrec- 
tion 35  means  exactly  the  same  thing — means 


204          THE  LIGHT  OF  MEN 

regeneration  —  being  born  anew,  or  from 
above?  Jesus  said  to  the  caviling  Sad- 
ducees,  "Ye  do  err,  not  knowing  the  scrip- 
tures nor  the  power  of  God.  God  is  not  the 
God  of  the  dead,  but  of  the  living." 

Death  is  always  regarded  by  the  mystic  as 
meaning,  not  the  laying  aside  of  the  physical 
body — for  this  he  knows  to  be  a  mere  inci- 
dent in  an  endless  existence  —  but  a  spiritual 
(or  rather  unspiritual)  condition,  a  state  of 
unregenerateness,  a  dwelling  of  conscious- 
ness in  the  lower  man.  While  we  are  im- 
mersed in  things  relative,  sordid,  artificial, 
material ;  while  we  remain  hidebound  by  the 
aims,  the  prejudices,  the  conventions  of  the 
world ;  while1  we  are  content  to  function  with- 
in the  limited  horizons  of  the  lower  self,  we 
are  dead-,  —  "in  our  sins,"  is  the  technical 
term,  but  "in  ignorance  and  darkness" 
would  connote  the  condition  better.  And 
when  we  break  from  these  bonds,  when  we 
rise  into  the  higher  consciousness,  we  become 
alive  — ' '  alive  in  Christ. ' ' 

Paul  puts  this  to  us  succinctly :  — 
"For  to  be  carnally-minded  is  death;  but 


JESUS  OF  NAZARETH         205 

to  be  spiritually-minded  is  life  and  peace." 
(Romans  VIII  6) 

The  Epistles  of  Paul  (the  earliest  and 
most  authentic  Christian  documents)  are  full 
of  illuminative  passages.36 

The  Master's  word  is :  — 

"Whoso  liveth  and  belie veth  in  me  shall 
never  die."  (John  XI  26) 

"If  a  man  keep  my  saying  he  shall  never 
see  death."  (John  VIII  51) 

"The  hour  is  coming  and  now  is  when  the 
dead  shall  hear  the  voice  of  the  Son  of  God, 
and  they  that  hear  shall  live."  (John  V  25) 

"He  that  heareth  my  word  and  believeth 
(i.e.,  knoweth)  on  Him  that  sent  me,  hath 
everlasting  life,  and  cometh  not  unto  con- 
demnation; but  is  passed  from  death  unto 
life."  ( John  V  24) 

"I  (the  Christ  Principle)  am  the  resurrec- 
tion and  the  life:  he  that  believeth  in  (or 
through)  me,  though  he  were  dead,  yet  shall 
he  live."  (John  XI  25) 

Resurrection  then  does  not  mean  the  re- 
habilitation of  the  soul  in  this,  or  any  other, 
body,  it  means  a  shift  in  the  polarisation  of 


206          THE  LIGHT  OF  MEN 

the  consciousness.  It  means  entering  into 
the  Christ-consciousness.  The  regenerated 
man  enters  into  joy  and  peace  and  power  im- 
measurable ;  enters  into  knowledge  ineffable  ; 
enters  into  Sonship. 


We  are  all  of  us  potentially  Sons  of  God,37 
you  and  I  and  every  man  ;  but  we  have  for- 
gotten our  royal  lineage;  we  pass  our  ex- 
istence in  ignorance  of  our  birthright.  The 
lures  of  the  flesh,  the  delimitations  of  the 
sense-perceptions,  the  centering  in  trivial 
and  material  things,  the  indulgence  of  the 
lower  nature  have  built  up  adamantine  bar- 
riers between  our  high  prerogatives  and  our 
consciousness.  It  becomes  our  privilege  to 
beat  down  those  barriers  —  to  dissolve  them 
in  the  kindling  flame  of  our  own  inwardness. 
The  pentecostal  fires  —  the  fires  of  Illumina- 
tion —  are  forever  burning  ;  waiting  to  touch 
each  of  us  with  that  same  baptism  of  the 
Holy  Ghost  and  of  fire  which  touched  the 
Apostles  ;  but  they  are  burning,  and  must  al- 
ways burn,  upon  the  heights  of  spiritual  ex- 


JESUS  OF  NAZARETH         207 

perience.  We  must  climb  to  them;  and  the 
climbing  of  "the  Mount"  must  be  a  volition 
upon  our  part.  We  ourselves  must  turn  our 
faces  upward,  must  purify  and  prepare  our- 
selves. The  climbing  will  not  always  be 
easy.  It  involves  at  the  outset  a  full  re- 
nunciation, an  exalted  detachment,  a  strong 
and  enduring  holding  fast  in  the  faith;  but 
he  who  will  keep  his  steadfast  course  will 
anon  find  himself  filled  with  a  new  buoyancy 
of  spirit,  with  an  ever-increasing  sense  of 
freedom,  of  joy,  of  strength,  of  peace;  and 
will  go  triumphantly  climbing  upward  —  and 
upward  —  and  upward ! 

"If  the  Son  (the  Christ-Principle)  shall 
make  you  free,  ye  shall  be  free  indeed." 
(John  VIII  36) 

We  are  all  of  us  potentially  Sons  of  God  — 
Children  of  the  Light.  To  grow  into  the 
recognition  and  consciousness  of  this  fact  is 
the  sole  purpose  of  human  experience ;  and 
until  we  recognise  it  we  exist  in  vain.  Every 
Ego  is  an  ideation  of  the  Infinite  Majesty ;  it 
remains  for  each  of  us  to  make  that  ideation 
a  sublime  actuality. 


208          THE  LIGHT  OF  MEN 

Is  it  so  difficult  to  turn  from  darkness  to 
light? — from  pain,  disillusionment,  and  de- 
nial, to  surety,  fulness,  fulfilment,  and  event- 
ually an  incommunicable  joy?  —  from  con- 
suming restlessness  and  confusion  to  perfect 
poise,  divine  order,  and  peace  —  the  "  Peace 
of  God  which  passeth  understanding"? 
Could  we  know,  could  we  even  dream,  the 
grandeur  of  that  which  awaits  us,  we  should 
fling  aside  those  husks  which  we  now  regard 
as  life,  and  we  should  stay  not  a  moment  in 
our  haste  to  achieve  that  estate  which  really 
is  life !  And  when  we  have  once  recognised 
that  the  things  of  the  external  world  cannot 
fill  us,  that  they  are  relative,  transient,  il- 
lusory, they — the  dominion  of  them,  that 
is  —  will  slip  from  us  as  surely  as  autumn 
leaves  rustle  to  the  ground  because  their 
holding  vitality  has  gone  out  of  them.  Then 
the  soul  will  stand,  cleansed  and  bared  before 
the  new  dawn.38  And  it  will  come.  It  will 
come  as  surely  as  the  terrestrial  dawn  does. 

Love — Love,  the  Revealer,  Love,  the  Re- 
deemer— is  at  the  root  of  all  spiritual  un- 
f oldment.  Love,  in  its  lower  or  relative  as- 


JESUS  OF  NAZARETH         209 

pect,  a  radiation  toward  one 's  fellow  men ;  in 
its  higher  or  cosmic  aspect,  a  sacramental 
fire,  in  which  faith,  purity,  and  holy  desire 
are  blended  into  one  soaring  flame.  If  that 
flame  be  high  enough  and  hot  enough  it  will 
fuse  the  last  fetter  upon  the  soul — dissolve 
the  last  veil  which  clouds  the  understanding, 
as  mists  vanish  before  the  beams  of  the  ris- 
ing sun. 

Those  upon  whom  this  higher  vision  has 
broken  fail  adequately  to  describe  it.  The 
tongue  stammers  and  halts  in  the  effort  to 
translate  ineffable  things  into  concrete  terms, 
but  it  is  given  us  to  know  that  it  is  a  trans- 
cendence not  born  of  the  senses  nor  to  be 
cognised  by  them.  The  percipient  undergoes 
a  wonderful  change  in  the  personal  vibra- 
tion; an  intensification,  as  it  were,  of  life. 
There  comes  a  liberation  of  some  indefinable 
energy  from  the  depths  of  being,  a  swift  ac- 
cession of  spiritual  strength  and  power.  He 
becomes  for  the  moment  more  than  man.  He 
feels  himself  swept,  absorbed,  lost  in  Om- 
nipotence, yet  keeping  a  consciousness  apart ; 
although  how  this  may  be  is  not  to  be  ex- 


210          THE  LIGHT  OF  MEN 

plained  by  finite  mind.  And,  oh!  darkness 
becomes  forever  swallowed  up  of  light! 

Light  indeed  is  the  supreme  impression 
made  upon  the  consciousness  —  a  boundless, 
overwhelming  splendour  in  which  the  spirit 
seems  to  float  free  and  triumphant.  In  this 
irradiate  suffusion  —  which,  for  want  of  a 
better  term,  we  may  call  an  ocean  of  super- 
consciousness —  all  mortal  delimitations  are 
swept  away,  and  the  pulsing  heart  of  Being 
is  laid  open. 

Create  and  uncreate  are  seen  to  be  a  unit. 

Life  is  one;  indivisible,  indestructible; 
permeating,  playing  through  all  things  — 
worlds,  systems,  cycles.  There  is  no  break 
anywhere.  There  is  no  here  nor  there;  no 
near  nor  far-,  no  mine  nor  thine.  There  is 
only  ONE.  Now,  always  and  forever,  there 
is  only  the  ALL.  In  supreme  self -surren- 
der the  soul  of  man  knows  itself  an  indis- 
soluble part  of  IT,  and  can  cry  with  the 
Master, 

"I  and  the  Father  are  one!" 


Ill 

NOTES 


NOTES 
(i) 

(See  page  73) 

In  this  book  the  canonical  gospels  are  followed 
without  question,  or  any  special  reference  to  the  so- 
called  higher  criticism.  Doubtless  for  all  intents  and 
purposes  they  are  authentic  enough.  For  the  first 
half  century  after  the  brief  ministry  of  Jesus  the  mes- 
sage which  he  had  brought  to  men  was  held  as  so  over- 
whelming and  absorbing  that  the  personal  history  of 
the  man  was  a  good  deal  lost  sight  of.  Every  word 
which  he  had  uttered,  every  spiritual  idea  which  he  had 
promulgated,  was  carefully  caught  up  and  soon  re- 
corded. An  immense  number  of  these  Logia,  or  Say- 
ings of  Jesus,  existed,  and  not  a  few  fragments  have 
been  recently  discovered.  Many  of  these  Sayings 
which  we  have  are  identical,  almost  word  for  word, 
with  passages  in  the  gospels;  and  in  every  case  the 
early  record  is  prefaced  with  the  words,  "Jesus 
saith,"  evidencing  that  at  that  time  what  Jesus  had 
said,  rather  than  what  Jesus  had  done,  was  held  of 
first  importance.  There  is  every  reason  to  believe 
that  the  gospels  of  the  canon  were  not  written  from 
each  other,  but  that  they,  as  well  as  a  great  number 


214          THE  LIGHT  OF  MEN 

of  others,  were  composed  separately  from  cognate 
early  materials;  although  the  third  gospel  and  the 
first  chapter  of  the  first  gospel  are  disturbed  by 
glosses  from  some  later  hands.  The  mystic  side  of 
the  teachings  of  Jesus  finds  its  greatest  expression  in 
the  fourth  gospel,  because  the  writer  was  more  pro- 
foundly a  mystic ;  but,  read  with  esoteric  eyes,  all  the 
gospels  bear  the  same  message,  and  there  is  between 
them  a  beautiful  and  synthetic  harmony.  According 
to  consensus  of  opinion  among  scholars,  the  prob- 
abilities are  that  they  were  written  in,  or  just  previ- 
ous to  the  reign  of  Hadrian.  Mr.  Flinders  Petrie 
places  the  date  very  much  earlier  (cf.  The  Growth  of 
the  Gospels).  He  claims  a  "nucleus"  —  uniform  in 
the  synoptic  gospels  —  probably  written  by  the  hands 
of  the  Apostles  to  which  they  are  respectively  accred- 
ited, the  rest  of  the  body  of  these  gospels  being  later 
accretions,  either  from  Galilean  documents,  or  pos- 
sibly from  oral  tradition. 

(2) 
(See  page  75) 

The  Essenes  were  a  community  of  recluses  who 
dwelt  at  Engaddi,  near  the  Dead  Sea.  Their  origin 
is  attributed  generally  to  an  esoteric  brotherhood  es- 
tablished by  the  prophet  Samuel,  of  which  they  were 
a  surviving  remnant.  Other  authorities  give  it  that 
they  were  a  remnant  of  a  settlement  of  Buddhist 
monks  several  centuries  before  the  Christian  Era. 


NOTES  215 

Very  possibly  they  were  a  blend  of  both;  for  it  is  a 
well-known  fact  that  Buddhism  passed  far  beyond 
its  original  sources,  and  at  one  time  overflowed  nearly 
the  whole  of  Asia.  The  Essenes  were  spiritual  celi- 
bates, living  a  life  of  austerity,  purity,  and  good 
works.  They  cultivated  their  monastic  lands,  instruct- 
ed those  who  came  to  them  for  instruction,  and  spent 
much  time  in  meditation  and  inward  communion,  con- 
serving in  some  form,  not  known  to  us,  the  sacrament 
of  the  Inner  Mysteries.  A  rigourous  novitiate  was 
required  to  gain  admittance  to  the  order.  There  ap- 
pear also  to  have  been  groups  of  lay-Essenes,  who 
lived  in  the  world,  married  among  themselves,  and 
who  were  distinguished  for  the  purity  and  probity  of 
their  lives.  Tradition  connects  Mary,  the  mother  of 
Jesus,  with  the  lay-Essenes. 

(3) 

(Sec  page  77) 

After  the  return  of  the  Jews  from  the  Babylonian 
captivity  they  split  up  into  several  sects,  the  principal 
of  which  were  the  Sadducees  ( Tsedukim  —  the  right- 
eous) and  the  Pharisees  (Perishim  —  separatists). 
The  Sadducees,  drawn  from  the  opulent  classes,  ad- 
hered to  the  strict  code  of  the  Pentateuch,  and  were 
rigid  in  their  observance  of  the  written  law  of  Moses. 
The  Pharisees,  who  seem  to  have  been  the  prevailing 
body,  were  tinctured  with  the  Hellenic  culture  and 
mysticism,  which,  after  the  conquests  of  Alexander, 


216          THE  LIGHT  OF  MEN 

pervaded  Syria,  but  they  seem  to  have  drawn  little 
enlightenment  therefrom.  They  regulated  their  lives 
with  complicated  conventions,  and  became  noted  as 
types  of  pride  and  hypocrisy. 

(4) 
(See  page  78) 

We  have  no  record  of  the  personal  appearance  of 
Jesus,  but  we  know  that  perfect  bodily  conditions 
must  attend  the  absolutely  purified  soul.  We  have 
traditional  accounts  of  the  distinguished  and  lofty 
beauty  of  some  other  Avatars,  and  it  is  not  believable 
that  our  own  Lord  of  Light  was  any  otherwise. 

(5) 

(See  page  78) 

John,  being  a  psychic  —  as  are  all  highly  trained 
mystics  —  probably  recognised  Jesus  by  his  aura, 
which  would  be  of  a  dazzling  light.  Every  man  has 
his  aura,  which  is  a  projection  or  emanation  from  the 
astral,  or  subtle  body,  and  extends  in  an  oval  form  a 
couple  of  feet  or  so  outside  of  the  dense,  or  physical 
body.  The  aura  is  of  varying  colours;  dark,  heated, 
or  muddy  in  subjects  of  a  material  order,  or  those  dom- 
inated by  passions ;  passing,  in  the  case  of  more  spirit- 
ualised  subjects,  into  pale  blues,  translucent  violets, 
pale,  luminous  yellows.  The  aura  of  a  great  spiritual 
personality  is  dazzling.  Many  ordinary  clairvoyants 


NOTES  217 

are  able  to  perceive  the  aura  as  a  more  or  less  trans- 
parent mist,  and  some  are  also  aware  of  the  colour. 

(6) 

(See  page  79) 

Elementary,  or  primordial  substance,  otherwise  vir- 
gin matter,  appears  to  be  as  permanent  and  imperish- 
able as  Spirit  itself  —  is  indeed  an  aspect,  or  expres- 
sion, of  Spirit.  Natively  it  is  inchoate,  inert,  quies- 
cent, but,  when  stirred  or  impregnated  with  an  efflu- 
ence from  Absolute  Spirit,  it  is  quickened  into  activity, 
and  becomes  concrete  and  manifest  as  atoms,  as  mole- 
cules, as  plasm,  as  worlds,  as  solar  systems,  as  uni- 
verses. The  manifest  Solar  System  is  the  Son,  born 
of  the  Spirit  and  Virgin  matter.  This  is  the  meaning 
of  the  Virgin  Birth.  It  is  the  cardinal  error  of  those 
who  formulated  the  official  Christian  creed,  that, 
through  ignorance  of  the  deeper  occult  meaning  of 
these  things,  they  confused  the  man,  Jesus,  not  only 
with  the  Christ  (which  is  an  indwelling  Principle  in- 
herent to  a  special  degree  of  spiritual  development, 
and  therefore  not  individual,)  but  also  with  the  Sec- 
ond Person  of  the  Logos.  Furthermore  the  word 
"person,"  as  we  now  use  it,  has  a  very  different  con- 
notation from  that  which  it  originally  bore.  Persona, 
is  compounded  of  two  Latin  words,  per  and  sona,  and 
means  "that  through  which  sound  comes."  It  was 
the  term  used  to  designate  the  mask  which  the  Latin 


218          THE  LIGHT  OF  MEN 

actors  wore  upon  the  stage,  which  mask  indicated  the 
character  that  the  actor  intended  to  represent;  and 
therefore  it  means  aspect  rather  than  person.  It  is 
well  to  keep  this  distinction  in  mind. 

(7) 
(See  page  79) 

St.  Paul  states  it  clearly :  "Jesus  Christ,  our  Lord, 
which  was  made  of  the  seed  of  David  according  to  the 
flesh."  (Romans  I,  3)  "But  when  the  fulness  of  the 
time  was  come,  God  sent  forth  His  son,  made  of  a 
woman,  made  under  the  law."  (Galatians  IV,  4) 
"That  of  the  fruit  of  his  (David's)  loins,  according 
t-o  the  flesh,  he  would  raise  up  Christ—"  (Acts  II,  30) 
"O/  this  man's  (David's)  seed,  hath  God,  accordingly 
to  his  promise,  raised  unto  Israel,  a  Saviour,  Jesus." 
(Acts  XIII,  23) 

(8) 
(See  page  83) 

It  behooves  us  moderns  not  to  be  contemptuous  of 
the  ancient  science  of  astrology,  for,  although  in  our 
day  degenerate  and  meretricious,  it  is  the  parent  of 
modern  astronomy,  and  was  in  ancient  days  a  very 
great  and  comprehensive  mystic  science.  The  con- 
junction here  referred  to  was  the  conjunction  of  Sat- 
urn and  Jupiter  in  the  constellation  of  Pisces,  the  two 
planets  being  later  joined  by  Mars,  all  three  being 
close  together  in  this  same  part  of  the  heavens.  The 
calculations  of  modern  astronomy  show  that  in  the 


NOTES  219 

Roman  year  of  747  (or  seven  years  prior  to  the  Chris- 
tian Era)  the  planets  Saturn  and  Jupiter  were  in  a 
conjunction  in  the  constellation  of  Pisces,  and  that,  in 
the  spring  of  748,  they  were  joined  by  the  planet  Mars. 
Kepler  first  furnished  us  with  this  calculation  in  the 
year  1604,  and  modern  calculations  have  verified  his 
work.  As  the  exact  date  of  the  birth  of  Jesus  is  not 
known,  and  is  given  by  different  authorities  as  vary- 
ing by  four  to  two  hundred  years  before  the  accepted 
date,  the  above  apparent  discrepancy  need  not  disturb 
us. 

(9) 

(See  page  98) 

No  personality  must  be  associated  with  ethereal  be- 
ings of  any  sort.  Again  we  must  not  forget  that  these 
are  not  persons  but  aspects  of  spirit. 

(10) 
(See  page  109) 

Mt.  Tabor  is  the  spot  to  which  the  scene  of  the 
Transfiguration  is  usually  ascribed.  Some  authorities 
claim  for  it  the  noble,  snow-crowned  Mt.  Hermon,  in 
the  scarped  recesses  of  which  gush  the  numerous 
springs  from  which  the  river  Jordan  takes  its  rise. 
"Going  up  into  a  mountain"  is  the  esoteric  term  used 
from  very  ancient  times  by  mystics  to  indicate  the 
withdrawal  of  the  spirit  into  its  own  fastnesses ;  there- 
fore some  interpreters  of  this  episode  claim  that  the 
latter  is  the  sole  meaning  of  the  passage  "bringeth 


220          THE  LIGHT  OF  MEN 

them  up  into  a  high  mountain."  Probably  however 
both  are  true,  and  the  passage  is  charged,  as  are  many 
others  in  the  gospel,  with  both  an  exoteric  and  an 
esoteric  significance. 

(11) 
(See  page  109) 

"The  fashion  of  his  count€nance  was  altered" 
Luke  (IX  29)  hath  it. 

(12) 

(See  page  112) 

Ultimate,  or  Absolute,  Deity  is  an  abstraction  too 
stupendous  to  be  even  conceived,  far  less  grasped,  by 
finite  intellect.  The  nearest  that  we  can  approach  to 
such  a  concept  is  in  the  Demiurgic  Aspect,  when  It 
emerges  into  manifestation  as  Creator;  and  even  then 
any  concept  must  of  necessity  be  most  partial  and  im- 
perfect until  we  begin  to  acquire  the  inner  vision. 

(13) 

(See  page  116) 

Or  it  is  more  than  likely  that  Jesus  never  uttered 
exactly  these  words  —  the  most  Christ-like  of  the  gos- 
pels, St.  John,  contains  none  such  —  but  that  the  writ- 
er of  the  first  gospel,  being  a  Jew,  used  the  terms 
familiar  in  the  Jewish  tradition.  And  it  is  upon  the 
Jewish  tradition  that  Christian  theology  has  built  it- 
self. Jesus  would  have  been  the  last  to  postulate 
eternal  damnation,  although  of  course  he  knew  and 


NOTES  221 

taught  the  inevitable  balancing  of  Eternal  Law.  The 
Cosmic  law  of  compensation  —  the  law  of  the  sowing 
and  the  reaping  —  is  absolute.  St.  Paul  puts  it  suc- 
cinctly. "Be  not  deceived.  God  is  not  mocked:  for 
whatsoever  a  man  soweth,  that  shall  he  also  reap." 
(Gal.  VI  7) 

(14) 
(See  page  120) 

How  did  Jesus  so  easily  escape  from  his  enemies 
when  they  surrounded  him,  and  every  eye  was  upon 
him?  He  flung  the  mists  of  maya,  or  illusion,  over 
their  sight.  To  use  the  terms  of  today,  he  hypnotised 
them ;  so  that  the  man  quietly  slipping  through  their 
midst  appeared  other  than  he  was,  and  while  they 
sought  him  he  was  away.  The  reason  that  Jesus  per- 
mitted himself  this  protection  at  this  juncture  was 
because  the  time  for  his  sacrifice  was  not  quite  ripe, 
and  he  had  somewhat  more  to  do  before  that  hour 
arrived.  This  particular  phenomenon  is  well  known 
in  the  east  to  this  day,  and  is  sometimes  practised  by 
highly-trained  thaumaturgists  who  have  no  preten- 
sions whatever  to  any  divinity.  It  merely  indicates 
enormous  psychic  mastery. 

This  is  the  most  simple  explanation,  but  there  is 
another  method  sometimes  employed  by  great  Adepts 
(an  Adept  is  not  an  Avatar,  although  an  Avatar,  by 
virtue  of  the  greater  including  the  less,  is  of  course 
an  Adept)  by  which  Jesus  may  have  made  his  escape. 
As  all  advanced  occulists  are  aware,  there  exist  media 


222          THE  LIGHT  OF  MEN 

in  Nature,  not  known  to  Material  science,  which  can 
be  made  to  encircle,  or  encase,  an  object  so  that  rays 
of  light  impinging  upon  this  etheric  armour,  or  en- 
velope, will  be  deflected.  They  thus  will  bend  or  curl 
around  it.  and  then  continue  in  the  original  direction. 
Such  an  enveloped  object  thus  becomes  invisible ;  but 
it  remains  tangible,  and  it  would  therefore  have  to  be 
got  out  of  the  way  as  soon  as  possible.  This  is  the 
explanation  given  by  occultists  for  the  famous  "dis- 
appearance" of  Apollonius  of  Tyana  when  he  was  on 
trial  before  the  Emperor  Domitian.  The  event  is 
narrated  in  Philostratus'  Life  of  Apollonius,  and  is 
authenticated  by  passages  in  other  writers.  Apol- 
lonius concealed  himself  by  this  means,  and  then 
availed  himself  of  the  law  of  levitation  to  lift  himself 
out  above  the  crowd  into  the  open,  and  so  away. 

(15) 

(See  page  123) 

The  ancients  understood  better  than  we  moderns 
the  secrets  of  these  Words  of  power,  and  how  to  ar- 
range them.  In  Sanskrit  they  are  called  Mantras,  and 
the  esoteric  literature  of  India  abounds  with  them. 
The  Sanskrit  Mantras  are  the  most  complete  and  pow- 
erful ones  which  have  snirvived  to  this  day;  although 
doubtless  plenty  of  the  same  sort  —  now  lost  to  us  — 
existed  in  other  ancient  tongues.  "We  know  that 
among  the  Essenes,  the  Therapeute,  and  other  mystic 


NOTES  223 

bodies  these  sacred  love-feasts,  with  their  formulae, 
were  in  use. 

In  constructing  the  Christian  liturgy  the  early 
fathers,  who  were  many  of  them  themselves  mystic 
Initiates,  had  this  aim  in  view;  and  therefore,  in  the 
earlier  Greek  texts,  and  later,  the  Latin,  a  number  of 
phrases  and  groups  of  phrases  have  the  character  of 
Mantras.  This  is  the  real  reason  that  today  the  Ro- 
man Catholic  Mass  is  celebrated  in  Latin,  even  though 
the  celebrant  be  quite  ignorant  of  the  occult  nature  of 
that  sacrament.  Obviously  to  translate  a  Mantram 
into  another  language  breaks  the  flow  of  the  adjusted 
rhythms  and  harmony,  and  robs  it  both  of  its  majesty 
and  its  significance. 

That  Jesus  sometimes  sang  hymns  with  his  chosen 
disciples  is  evidenced  by  the  one  mentioned  on  this 
occasion,  and  that  they  were  of  the  gnostic  character 
is  most  probable.  In  one  of  the  uncanonical  books 
called  "The  Acts  of  John"  there' occurs  a  beautiful 
hymn,  known  as  "The  Hymn  of  Jesus,"  which  is  dis- 
tinctly a  Mystery  ritual.  "The  Acts  of  John"  are 
of  course  not  authentic  history,  but  they  are  sug- 
gestive of  what  may  very  well  have  been. 

(16) 

(See  page  123) 

The  terms  "higher,"  "lower,"  "up,"  or  "down," 
are  merely  conventional,  and  are  only  used  connota- 


224          THE  LIGHT  OF  MEN 

tively.  There  is,  and  can  be,  no  dimensional  relativ- 
ity in  Spirit,  which,  whether  manifest  or  unmanifest, 
is  all-pervasive.  The  different  planes  interpenetrate. 
Such  of  us  as  have  only  consciousness  of  the  grosser 
will  function  in  those  alone ;  but  let  but  a  break  come 
into  a  finer  and  rarer  consciousness,  and  the  soul  will 
expand  and  function  in  that. 

(17) 

(Sec  page  126) 

Compare  with  "He  that  eateth  and  drinketh  un- 
worthily, eateth  and  drinketh  damnation  to  himself, 
not  discerning  the  Lord's  body.  For  this  cause  many 
are  weak  and  sickly  among  you,  and  many  sleep." 
(I  Cor.  IX  29-30) 

(18) 

(See  page  128) 

The  question  naturally  arises  why  should  a  Lord 
of  Light  agonise  at  the  prospect  of  physical,  even  if 
most  cruel,  suffering?  We  observe  that  the  fourth 
gospel  —  the  one  which  most  closely  interprets  the 
mystery  of  Jesus  —  makes  no  mention  of  the  agony  in 
the  garden.  The  writers  of  the  synoptic  gospels  wrote 
largely  from  the  human  standpoint ;  the  fourth  gospel 
treats  all  circumstance  entirely  from  the  spiritual 
standpoint.  Either  then  this  episode  was  not,  or  else 
this  was  the  synoptic  interpretation  of  some  transitory 
flicker  of  the  flame  in  its  mortal  socket.  "We  are 


NOTES  225 

therefore  constrained  to  synthesise  events  by  accept- 
ance of  the  great  Gnostic  paradox:  "He  suffered,  yet 
he  did  not  suffer. ' ' 

(19) 

(Sec  page  129) 

Bear  in  mind  that  Jesus  was  a  Master  of  Power, 
and  that  a  single  exercise  of  this  power  could  have 
shattered  the  palace  of  the  high  priest  and  destroyed 
every  creature  within  its  walls. 

(20) 
(See  page  130) 

Mark  and  Matthew  have  it  that  Jesus  cried  with  a 
loud  voice,  "My  God,  my  God,  why  hast  thou  for- 
saken me?" 

It  is  inconceivable  that  this  God-man,  as  we  know 
him  to  have  been,  should  for  one  moment  have  felt 
himself  "forsaken"  of  That  of  which  he  was  an  inte- 
gral part.  Some  commentators  explain  this  passage 
by  saying  that  in  uttering  these  words  Jesus  was  be- 
ginning to  quote  the  twenty-second  Psalm,  which 
opens  thus,  but  later  turns  to  a  paean  of  triumph. 
"All  the  ends  of  the  earth  shall  remember,  and  turn 
unto  the  Lord,"  etc.,  and  that,  though  he  spoke  only 
the  initial  passage,  the  whole  Psalm,  with  its  connota- 
tion, was  in  his  mind;  the  meaning  being  that  this 
sacrifice,  consummated  in  ignominy  and  agony,  would 
not  be  wasted,  but  that,  through  it,  and  because  of  it, 


226          THE  LIGHT  OP  MEN 

all  the  world  (i.  e.  "the  ends  of  the  earth")  would 
turn  and  know  God,  and  recognise  the  earthly  su- 
premacy of  the  Master.  Perhaps.  This  reading  is 
ingenious  but  not  wholly  convincing.  Did  the  Master 
really  utter  these  words  of  purely  human  despair  ?  If 
he  did,  it  must  have  been  only  in  the  delirium  of  phys- 
ical dissolution,  when  the  consciousness  and  the  organs 
of  speech  were  no  longer  connected.  We  believe  that 
he  did  not  utter  them,  and  that  the  rendering  in  John 
and  Luke  are  nearer  the  facts. 

(21) 

(See  page  131) 

Most  persons  suppose,  naturally  enough,  that  the 
physical  or  dense  body  is  the  only  envelope  of  the 
soul;  but  the  soul  possesses  other,  more  ethereal,  ve- 
hicles in  which  to  express  itself,  and  functions  simul- 
taneously upon  several  different  interpenetrating 
planes.  Perhaps  this  can  be  made  clear  by  a  figure. 
Suppose  that  we  take  a  peck  measure  and  fill  it  with 
common  marbles;  it  will  not  hold  any  more  marbles, 
yet  the  measure  is  not  full.  There  are  innumerable 
little  interstices  between  the  marbles.  "We  pour  into 
the  measure  a  quantity  of  small  shot,  which  settles  it- 
self into  the  interstitial  spaces ;  but  the  measure  is  not 
yet  full.  We  can  pour  in  a  quantity  of  fine  sand, 
which  will  settle  itself  into  the  still  smaller  spaces; 
yet  the  measure  is  not  full.  We  can  pour  water  into 
it,  and  the  water  will  penetrate  every  tiniest  crevice, 


NOTES  227 

settling  around  the  solids  closely.  Is  there  room  for 
anything  more?  Yes.  We  can  charge  the  whole 
contents  with  that  intangible  thing,  electricity;  and, 
possibly,  if  we  were  in  control  of  any  finer  element, 
we  could  further  introduce  that.  Now  observe:  all 
these  things  are  contained  within  the  one  peck  meas- 
ure, which  has  not  needed  to  be  enlarged  in  order  to 
receive  them.  In  this  same  way  the  human  soul  uses 
for  its  expression  several  different,  but  interpenetrat- 
ing vehicles,  envelopes,  or  bodies,  of  graduated  density. 

The  dense,  or  physical,  body  we  all  know;  the  ma- 
jority of  persons  know  nothing  else.  Many  of  us 
have  more  or  less  spiritual  consciousness,  which  indi- 
cates a  vehicle  through  which  to  function;  but  this 
we  need  not  touch  upon  here.  But  in  the  western 
world  we  know  very  little  —  except  in  a  sporadic  and 
empyric  way  —  of  the  intermediate  vehicle,  the  subtle, 
psychic,  or  astral,  body ;  yet  it  is  as  fixed  a  fact  as  the 
dense  body. 

The  astral  body  is  imponderable,  intangible,  and, 
to  the  ordinary  vision,  invisible;  but  it  is  an  exact 
counterpart  of  the  dense  body.  The  astral  body  pos- 
sesses, like  the  dense  body  but  of  a  finer  quality,  five 
senses.  To  the  subtle  vision  we  give  the  name  of  clair- 
voyance; to  the  subtle  hearing,  the  name  of  clair- 
audience.  The  subtle  sense  of  touch  is  known  as  psy- 
chometry.  There  exist  also  a  subtle  sense  of  smell 
and  of  taste,  but  these  are  not  yet  labeled  in  our 
nomenclature.  The  astral  body  is  the  seat  of  sensa- 


228  THE  LIGHT  OF  MEN 

tion,  of  the  emotions,  of  desires,  and  of  all  the  passions. 
It  is  a  more  ethereal  vehicle  than,  but  in  essence  quite 
as  material  as,  the  dense  body.  The  dense  body  is 
only  a  machine  —  a  congeries  of  muscles  and  cells, 
functioning  in  obedience  to  the  promptings  of  the 
subtle  body,  unless  these  be  superseded  by  a  higher 
authority.  Behind  all  is  the  Will,  the  driving  power 
of  the  world ;  a  supreme  spiritual  quality  of  the  Ego 
and  not  separable  from  it.  The  Will  appears  in  a 
sense  to  be  impersonal,  and  will  be  coloured  by  the 
plane  upon  which  consciousness  functions.  Thus  in 
an  elementary  or  emotional  subject  the  directive  im- 
pulse will  proceed  largely  from  the  astral  faculties, 
such  a  subject  being  more  or  less  a  creature  of  passion 
and  impulse.  In  subjects  in  whom  the  ethical  con- 
sciousness is  well  developed  the  will  is  likely  to  be 
directed  by  reason.  In  the  highest  development 
spiritual  poise  and  wisdom  will  dominate  reason,  and 
Will  becomes  one  with  consciousness. 

In  deep  sleep,  in  trance,  or  in  coma  of  any  kind,  the 
spirit  withdraws  consciousness  into  its  more  ethereal 
vehicles  and  escapes  from  the  body.  Clothed  in  its 
second  vehicle,  the  subtle  or  astral  body  —  much  as  a 
man  might  lay  aside  his  outer  garments  and  walk 
about  in  his  under- vesture  —  it  leaves  the  dense  body 
unconscious,  and  passes  into  the  realm  of  the  Supra- 
liminal.  It  however  remains  attached  to  the  dense 
body  by  a  tenuous,  impalpable,  astral  filament,  or 
thread,  by  which,  at  an  instant's  notice,  it  may  be 


NOTES  229 

drawn  back  into  the  dense  body  and  to  objective  con- 
sciousness. In  subjects  of  a  dull,  material,  or  primi- 
tive order  it  does  not  go  far,  but  remains  inertly  near 
its  unconscious  shell.  In  subjects  of  a  high  develop- 
ment it  will  roam  far  and  wide  through  the  unseen, 
accumulating  inspiration  and  refreshment.  It  is  by 
this  process,  this  functioning  for  a.  time  in  the  unseen, 
that  the  Ego  renews  and  refreshes  itself  from  the 
strain  of  daily  objective  life.  At  death  the  same  pro- 
cess takes  place,  except  that  the  filament  is  finally 
severed,  and  the  spirit  does  not  return.  The  astral 
body  is  retained  for  a  brief  period,  and  is  then  also 
in  its  turn  discarded,  to  disintegrate  and  return  to  its 
native  elements. 

All  apparitions  or  spiritistic  appearances  are  in  the 
astral  body,  and  are  perceivable  only  by  astral,  or 
psychic,  senses.  In  India  these  phenomena  are  pretty 
well  understood;  but  in  the  occidental  world  they 
cause  us  a  good  deal  of  disturbance.  "We  have  given 
the  astral  shape  many  names:  —  "the  fluidic  body," 
"the  double,"  the  " doppelganger, "  etc. 

Great  Adepts  —  of  whom  even  now  there  exist  up- 
on earth  a  greater  number  than  most  of  us  are 
aware  —  have,  through  highest  spiritual  development 
and  a  specific  disciplinary  training,  acquired  the 
power  of  leaving  the  body  at  will,  and  projecting 
themselves  in  the  astral  envelope  to  any  place  they 
please.  Ordinary  psychics,  in  whom  the  astral  per- 
ceptions are  sporadic  and  partial,  and  who  have  not 


230          THE  LIGHT  OF  MEN 

undergone  the  strenuous  disciplinary  training,  will  do 
best  not  to  play  in  this  very  dangerous  plane  of  con- 
sciousness; for  so  tremendous  are  its  potencies  that  a 
man  needs  to  be  first  wholly  master  of  himself  else 
he  will  be  destroyed  by  them. 

(22) 
(See  page  146) 

"Come  unto  me  all  ye  that  labour  and  are  heavy- 
laden,  and  I  will  give  you  rest.  Take  my  yoke  upon 
you  and  learn  of  me:  for  I  am  meek  and  lowly  in 
heart,  and  ye  shall  find  rest  unto  your  souls."  (Matt. 
XI  28-29) 

Our  connotation  of  the  English  word  "yoke"  is 
one  of  grievous  burden.  The  ox  wears  the  yoke  and 
does  our  drudgery  with  it.  He  is  dulled  and  heavy, 
and  seems  to  droop  beneath  the  wooden  bands  across 
his  neck,  but  this  is  not  the  idea  which  this  passage  is 
intended  to  convey.  If  it  were,  how  should  we  pos- 
sibly find  rest  unto  our  souls?  In  order  rightly  to 
interpret  it  we  must  go  to  our  sister  Aryan  tongue, 
the  Sanscrit.  Here  the  word  is  "yoga,"  and  also 
means  generically  a  yoke  (from  the  Sanscrit,  "Yug," 
meaning  "to  join") ;  but  our  most  metaphysical  of 
brothers,  the  Hindus,  transliterate  this  into  a  beautiful 
spiritual  symbol.  Yoga  therefore  has  come  to  mean 
a  joining  rather  than  a  yoking;  a  union  in  fact;  a 
union  of  the  lower  self  with  the  higher  (or  divine) 
Self.  St.  Paul  means  this  when  he  says,  ' '  He  that  is 


NOTES  231 

joined  unto  the  Lord  is  one  spirit."  (I  Cor.  VI  17) 
To  take  the  Master's  yoke  upon  us  and  learn  of  him, 
is  to  be  of  his  spirit,  to  assume  that  impersonal  atti- 
tude toward  all  the  circumstances  of  life,  which  will 
then  surrender  itself  happily  and  absolutely  to  the 
Divine  guidance;  which  obeys  its  leadings  in  perfect 
trust  and  faith;  and  which  thus  becomes  spiritually 
poised,  and  so  finds  rest  unto  its  soul. 

(23) 
(See  page  152) 

The  Century  Dictionary  defines  a  miracle  (from 
the  Latin  minis,  wonderful,  to  wonder)  as  an  effect 
in  nature  "not  attributable  to  any  of  the  recognised 
operations  of  nature  nor  to  the  act  of  man."  "A 
wonderful  work,  manifesting  a  power  superior  to  the 
ordinary  forces  of  nature. ' '  From  Funk  &  Wagnalls 
we  get  "an  event  in  the  natural  world,  but  out  of  its 
established  order,  and  possible  only  by  the  interven- 
tion and  exertion  of  divine  power." 

(24) 

(See  page  158) 

Of  Apollonius  of  Tyana,  for  instance,  there  are 
recorded  quite  as  wonderful  miracles  as  Jesus  wrought. 
Marvellous  phenomena  are  also  told  of  the  philosopher, 
Pythagoras,  but  it  has  been  the  custom  in  modern 
times  to  put  these  accounts  entirely  aside  —  as  dis- 
creditable to  his  philosophic  teaching,  forsooth !  —  by 


232          THE  LIGHT  OF  MEN 

those  who  cannot  recognise  that  one  would  quite  ra- 
tionally include  the  other.  Neither  of  these  men  were 
Avatars;  they  were  simply  men,  highly  trained  and 
highly  purified  men,  who  by  virtue  of  these  exercises 
of  discipline  had  acquired  the  thaumaturgic  powers 
which  gave  them  control  over  the  elemental  forces. 
In  other  words,  they  were  Adepts. 

(25) 
(See  page  160) 

All  of  the  laws  and  agencies  treated  of  in  these  sug- 
gestions are  every  day  facts  to  any  occultist,  but  the 
attempt  is  here  made  to  square  them  with  the  position 
of  modern  science,  so  far  as  modern  science  has  dis- 
covered and  accepted  them.  This  varies  with  the  in- 
dividual scientist.  The  psychic  phenomena  are  famil- 
iar to  every  candid  experimenter.  The  levitation  of 
tables,  chairs  and  other  objects  as  well  as  of  the  human 
body  are  facts  established  years  ago  in  this  line  of  re- 
search. See  accounts  of  Stainton  Moses,  the  famous 
Oxford  psychic,  who  more  than  once  when  sitting  in 
his  chair  was  gently  lifted,  chair  and  all,  up  to  within 
a  short  distance  of  the  ceiling,  held  there  a  few 
minutes,  and  then  just  as  gently  set  back  upon  the 
floor.  For  Apollonius'  use  of  this  law  of  levitation, 
see  note  14. 

Even  today  in  India,  the  land  of  Wonder,  not  a 
few  phenomena  can  be  accomplished  by  the  highly 
trained  Hindu  Yogi.  Living  eyes  have  beheld  such  an 


NOTES  233 

one  (he,  sitting  cross-legged  upon  the  ground,  in  the 
attitude  of  meditation)  levitate  himself  some  feet  into 
the  air,  and  remain  there  suspended  in  the  same  sit- 
ting posture,  legs  crossed,  eyes  closed,  for  an  appre- 
ciable time,  then  gently  descend  to  his  original  posi- 
tion upon  the  earth.  Also  there  are  known  Sannyasin 
capable  of  duplicating  small  objects. 

Paul  and  the  other  disciples  of  Jesus  did  healing, 
and  so  did  the  prophets  of  old.  Elisha  raised  the 
widow's  son  from  the  dead. 

(26) 

(Sec  page  161) 

Chemistry  is  today  shaking  hands  with  metaphysics. 
Some  of  the  experiments  of  our  modern  chemists  tend 
to  prove  that  chemical  atoms  and  human  emotions 
move  hand  in  hand.  Sound  can  be  transmuted  to 
form,  and  both  further  to  colour,  showing  that  each 
is  but  a  permutation  of  some  deeper  fundamental  law 
not  yet  formulated. 

(27) 

(See  page  161) 

The  tree  in  the  forest  falls  and  decays.  As  a  tree 
it  disappears,  but  the  chemical  particles  of  which  it 
was  composed  are  as  alive  and  active  as  ever.  Some 
of  them  have  become  a  part  of  the  soil,  where  they  will 
enter  into  the  life  of  new  vegetable  growths.  Some 
of  them  have  evaporated  into  the  ether,  whence  Na- 


234          THE  LIGHT  OF  MEN 

ture,  in  her  fine  economic  processes,  will  draw  them 
for  new  combinations.  The  rock,  dessicated  by  storms 
and  frosts,  disintegrates.  That  of  which  it  was  sub- 
stantially composed  becomes  in  like  manner  something 
else.  The  human  corpse  is  buried  in  the  ground,  or 
is  consumed  in  the  crematory.  Its  volatile  elements 
are  taken  up  by  earth  and  air  to  be  used  over  and 
over  again. 

(28) 

(See  page  162) 

The  body  of  wine  consists  of  water  —  of  those  ele- 
ments which  constitute  water  —  with  the  addition  of 
some  sugar,  of  glycerin,  of  a  small  quantity  of  certain 
acids  and  of  ethereal  salts  (which  give  the  particular 
flavour),  and  of  a  certain  per  cent,  (evolved  from  the 
saccharine  fermentation)  of  alcohol;  in  the  case  of 
native  wines,  drunk  by  the  peasantry  in  wine-growing 
countries,  a  very  small  per  cent. 

(29) 

(See  page  175) 

It  may  well  be  asked :  Why  then  do  we  not  bring 
back  impressions  of  these  nightly  subjective  experi- 
ences? In  point  of  fact,  many  persons  do.  Some  of 
us  retain  only  a  vague  sense  of  something  experienced ; 
but  trained  occultists  are  able  to  bring  through  a  very 
clear  impression  of  things  which  they  have  seen  and 
done  in  the  Beyond. 


NOTES  235 

(30) 
(See  page  190) 

The  commonly  accepted  view  is  that  the  twelve 
were  especially  selected  and  privileged  men,  arbitra- 
rily exalted  above  their  fellows  by  the  favour  of  their 
Master,  as  an  earthly  sovereign  selects  his  favourites. 
Especially  selected,  certainly,  but  arbitrarily  so,  no. 
They  were  indeed  advanced  Egos  —  purified  and  pro- 
bated. It  was  doubtless  part  of  the  Divine  plan  that 
these  men  should  incarnate  upon  the  earth  and  be 
functioning  in  the  flesh  at  the  time  when  the  Master 
appeared,  that  they  might  become  his  instruments. 
In  previous  incarnations  they  had  evolved  a  high  de- 
gree of  spirituality.  Contact  with  the  Master  would 
rapidly  ripen  them,  and  make  them  ready  for  their 
Pentecostal  illumination.  It  would  appear  further  as 
if  a  large  number  of  kindred  spirits  incarnated  at  this 
same  period,  or  in  the  next  generation  or  two,  which 
would  account  for  the  mighty  flux  of  those  exalted 
spiritual  tides  which  distinguished  the  very  early 
church. 

(31) 
(See  page  193) 

It  is  probable  that  not  all  the  twelve  were  equally 
illumined,  and  that  some  discrimination  was  made  in 
the  teaching.  Clement  of  Alexandria  states  that  the 
Gnosis  was  imparted  specifically  to  Peter,  John  and 
James  the  Just;  that  they  instructed  the  other  nine, 


236          THE  LIGHT  OF  MEN 

and  that  these  in  turn  prepared  the  seventy  for  their 
world-wide  mission. 

(32) 

(See  page  195) 

The  Christian  church  has  lost  her  pristine  powers. 
She  retains  in  name  those  sacraments  (sacramentum, 
the  Latin  rendering  of  Mysteries)  through  which  in 
the  early  days  men  might  become  God-like;  but,  be- 
side that  first  and  real  luminance,  they  are  void  and 
dark  and  meaningless.  For  many  centuries  she  has 
been  satisfied  to  produce  merely  good  men  of  an 
earthly  type,  and  points  to  the  saint  as  the  height  of 
human  perfectioning.  But  originally,  when  a  man 
had  reached  the  level  of  saintship,  he  was  only  at  the 
beginning  of  spiritual  things.  "We  are  told  that  there 
were  three  great  stages  in  the  mystic  training :  Puri- 
fication —  Illumination  —  Perfection.  The  final  stage 
was  the  goal.  "Be  ye  therefore  perfect,  even  as  your 
Father  which  is  in  heaven  is  perfect"  (Matt.  V  48)  is 
the  Master's  command.  Saintship  is  the  first  stage 
only,  the  stage  of  Purification.  The  man  has  broken 
the  dominion  of  the  senses.  He  has  sloughed  the 
world.  Vision  is  turned  inward.  He  is  ready  now 
for  the  apocalyptic  experiences,  but  within  the  church 
there  is  no  apocalypse  today.  In  the  parable  of  the 
king  who  gave  a  marriage  feast  for  his  son  (Matt. 
XXII  1-14)  the  Master  has  set  forth  the  very  essence 
and  core  of  man's  perfectioning,  using  the  mystic 


NOTES  237 

phraseology,  the  symbol-terms  familiar  to  every  occult- 
ist. The  marriage  feast  of  the  king's  son  represents 
the  solemn  final  sacrament,  the  Unio  mystica  —  some- 
times called  the  Mystical  marriage  —  the  supreme 
union  of  the  human  soul  with  its  Source;  but  every 
guest  who  comes  to  it  must  wear  a  wedding  garment, 
i.e.,  "a  robe  of  glory,"  which  he  cannot  receive  until 
the  milestone  of  Purification  has  been  passed.  The 
Robe  of  glory  stands  for  Illumination. 

(33) 
(See  page  199) 

In  the  Jewish  Kabalah  —  their  ' '  Secret  Doctrine, ' ' 
derived  from  Egyptian  and  Magian  sources  —  the  first 
principle  given  is  the  name  of  the  Absolute,  which  in 
translation  gives  us :  — 

"I  am  That  I  am."     Or,  better:  — 

"I  am  He  who  is." 

This  is  not  the  Anthropomorphic  Jahweh,  fathered 
by  ignorant  churchmen  upon  Christianity. 

(34) 

(See  page  199) 

The  Hebrew  word  Masiack  (Messiah)  means  the 
Anointed,  or  one  who  has  received  the  unction  or 
sanctifying  oil  of  God.  (His  Holy  Spirit.)  The 
Greek  translation  of  Masiach  is  Christ os  —  (Latin, 
Christus). 


238          THE  LIGHT  OF  MEN 

(35) 

(See  page  203) 

From  Re  and  surgo,  to  rise.  The  Greek  word 
anastasis,  rendered  resurrection,  means  literally  caus- 
ing to  stand  up,  or  stand  erect. 

(36) 
(See  page  205) 

A  few  are  quoted:  — 

"Paul,  an  apostle  from  God,  who  raised  him  up 
from  the  dead."  (Gal.  I  1) 

"But  sin  that  it  might  appear  sin  working  death 
in  me."  (Rom.  VII  13) 

' '  If  by  any  means  I  might  attain  unto  the  resurrec- 
tion of  the  dead."  (Phil.  Ill  11) 

"For  the  wages  of  sin  is  death :  but  the  gift  of  God 
is  eternal  life,  through  Christ  Jesus,  our  Lord." 
(Rom.  VI  23) 

"And  you  hath  he  quickened,  who  were  dead  in 
trespasses  and  sins."  (Ephesians  II  1) 

"But  God,  even  when  we  were  dead  in  sins,  hath 

quickened  us  together  with  Christ."  (Ephesians  II  5) 

"For  the  law  of  the  Spirit  of  Life  in  Christ  Jesus 

hath  made  me  free  from  the  law  of  sin  and  death." 

(Rom.  VIII  2) 

"For  since  by  (carnal)  man  came  death,  by  (spir- 
itual, or  regenerate)  man  came  also  the  resurrection  of 
the  dead."  (1st  Corinthians  XV  21) 


NOTES  239 

"For  as  in  Adam  (the  unregenerate  man)  all  die, 
even  so  in  Christ  (the  higher  or  spiritual  Self)  shall 
all  be  made  alive."  (1st  Corinthians  XV  22) 

' '  The  first  man  is  of  the  earth,  earthy ;  the  second 
Man  is  the  Lord  from  heaven."  (1st  Corinthians  XV 
47) 

"Therefore  if  any  man  be  in  Christ  he  is  a  new 
creature:  old  things  are  passed  away:  behold,  all 
things  are  become  new."  (2nd  Corinthians  V  17) 

"Wherefore  he  saith,  Awake  thou  that  sleepest, 
and  arise  from  the  dead,  and  Christ  shall  give  thee 
light."  (Ephesians  V  14) 

"That  as  sin  hath  reigned  unto  death,  even  so 
might  grace  reign  through  righteousness  unto  eternal 
life,  by  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord."  (Romans  V  21) 

(37) 
(See  page  206) 

' '  I  have  said  Ye  are  gods ;  and  all  of  you  are  chil- 
dren of  the  Most  High."  (Psl.  LXXXII  6) 

"Behold  what  manner  of  love  the  Father  hath 
bestowed  upon  us,  that  we  should  be  called  the  sons 
of  God."  (Epistle  of  John  III  1) 

"But  as  many  as  received  him  (the  Christ-spirit) 
to  them  gave  he  power  to  become  the  sons  of  God." 
(John  I  12) 

"And  because  ye  are  sons  God  hath  sent  forth  the 
Spirit  of  His  Son  into  your  hearts,  crying,  Abba, 
Father."  (Gal.  IV  6) 


240          THE  LIGHT  OF  MEN 

(38) 

(See  page  208) 

"Jesus  saith,  Let  not  him  who  seeks  cease  until  he 
finds;  and  when  he  finds  he  shall  be  astonished;  as- 
tonished he  shall  reach  the  kingdom,  and  having 
reached  the  kingdom  he  shall  rest."  The  Sayings  of 
Jems:  Oxyrhynchus  Papyrus. 


UC  SOUTHERN  REG 


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